


I Need U~

by HipHopLover45



Category: taekook - Fandom
Genre: Angst, M/M, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:38:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 52,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6704821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HipHopLover45/pseuds/HipHopLover45
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When V (referred to as Tae in this story) and Jungkook go to Daegu as vacation, what happens if their relationship becomes one where they're more than just friends?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Off to Daegu!

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction is kind of bad since it's the first one I've written, like ever. The chapters are short, but there will be a lot of them. This fanfiction moves very fast until the middle, where it slows down a bit. Cutting and suicidal thought occur a little bit in this story, so read at your own risk and enjoy~!

"Jungkook-ah!" Tae called from upstairs.

"Ne, hyung?"

"Come here!" Jungkook walked up the stairs to find the older boy waiting for him.

"What?" he came upstairs from their practice room, thinking that his hyung, Tae, just wanted to ask him if he wanted something to drink or eat. They had been practicing for another concert of theirs since they had just released The Most Beautiful Moments in Life Part I. "What, Tae?" Jungkook asked, panting hard from a tiring practice.

"I just wanted to ask you something?"

"Oh, I don't need water, thanks." Jungkook assumed, turning to walk back downstairs.

"No! Jungkook, that's...that's not what I wanted to ask." "Then what is it?" he asked curiously. A few moments of silence passed until his hyung finally spoke up. "I, um... I got tickets." The older one responded quietly, looking down at the ground.

"T-to what, exactly?" The maknae questioned, confused.

"Tickets to Daegu..." Tae said quietly. 

"You-you're leaving?" Jungkook asked desperately.

"No, no... I got... I got 2 tickets," he tried to explain.

"What do you mean?" Jungkook asked, clearly confused.

"I want you to come with me..." he explained. "Jiminie already said he's busy that week, what with practice and all, so I want you to come.. Look, I know you might be afraid, but really, there's nothing to worry about."

"I don't know my schedule, but yeah, I'd love to come to Daegu with you!" Jungkook said, excitedly. He honestly didn't know what to say. They had just ended their promotions for I Need U and Dope and were busy working on Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa Part II. They were told no vacations allowed during these busy times. Jungkook didn't even know if they'd get caught. Tae watched as he paced back and forth, thinking hard about his answer.

"Maknae..." he snapped him out of his little trance and listened to his hyung. "You really don't have to worry. I told them I was going on a business trip with you."

"You... what?" Jungkook asked, shocked. Tae wasn't one to lie.

"What, you have a better plan?" Tae questioned him.

"No, no, but... you lied to the manager? The company? They trusted us, Tae..."

"It's ok. We deserve this," Tae put his hand on Jungkook's shoulder, "come on, yes or no?" He rushed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll go." Jungkook would love to go to Daegu with Tae, but getting caught would mean the end of BTS for him and Tae. Everything they worked for- just done. Gone. But he's willing to take the chance if it's with him. As he went back downstairs, he thought long and hard about his answer. He was still debating in his head whether or not he should go and he didn't know at all.

"Ya, what was that about? You missed the practice for Baepsae. Come on, you know the choreography is new. You can't skip, Jungkook." J-hope pushed.

"Easy for you to say, lead freaking dancer." He snapped back. Everyone went silent.

"What did he want?" Jimin asked, giving him a look.

"Uh, yeah, he just wanted to give me something to drink." Jungkook lied. Jimin gave him a suspicious look and turned away.

"Whatever, let's just keep dancing." Rap Monster, their leader, said. "We need the practice." Nobody objected and everyone got in their place as Boy in Luv came on. The entire practice, Jungkook thought about his answer some more and the other members could see that when he messed up multiple times. When a there was a break to get some water and chill, Jimin pulled Jungkook aside.

"Ya, you're slacking off," Jimin said.

"What? No, I'm not..." Jungkook panted.

"You just messed up multiple times. You never mess up."

"Well, the choreography is hard."

"Jungkook! Stop! What the hell did Tae say to you?" Jimin raised his voice.

"He just asked if I wanted some water," Jungkook lied again.

"Did he really? Are you sure you want to lie to me again? I can understand if you lied to your other hyungs, but we trusted each other, Jungkook. Come on, spill it."

"Water," he continued to lie. "He wanted me to drink something so I didn't pass the crap out." Jungkook said coldly.

"Fine. I'll back off. But I will find out sooner or later. You can't lie to us forever." Jimin walked back out to annoy Hoseok-hyung and Jungkook was left with more to think about. Tae walked down to see Jimin giving Jungkook the death stare.

"Tae! What the hell, dude? You can't just disappear for 15 minutes." J-hope started yelling at him now.

"I'm sorry, I needed to get something." Tae lied like Jungkook, his smile making it just a little more believable than what was said earlier.

"Sure you were," Jimin said under his breath.

"What, you think I'm lying?" Tae daringly asked.

"Nope. I'm a 95'er like you. I know how you think. I know you're lying," the slightly older boy stated.

"I'm not lying, Jimin."

"Honorifics, Taehyung," Jimin shot back.

"We're best friends. You can't seriously be caught up in honorifics."

"Fine. I will have proof that you're lying, just you wait and see," he threatened. With that, Jimin left Tae to hang out with Hobie-hyung. Jungkook and Tae were left to think about what to do about lying to the other members. They both decided not to say anything and continued to practice both their older and newer songs. The end of the day came and they still hadn't said anything to the other members. Jungkook was trying to sleep when his phone buzzed.

TaeTae:

asleep yet??? :P

Jungkook:

Ani, not yet. Why?

TaeTae:

should we tell them? About Daegu?

Jungkook:

we'll get fired, so no. not yet. we'll tell them when the time is right.

TaeTae:

I feel awful lying to them.

Jungkook:

I feel awful too, but we have to. It's for the band's good.

TaeTae:

fine. we'll keep it a secret until we're alone together.

Jungkook:

yeah. Hide it from our manager-nims.

TaeTae:

alright. go to bed. we have to wake up early tomorrow.

Jungkook:

you sure this is a good idea, Tae?

TaeTae:

no. But we deserve it. Don't ditch now, Jungkook.

Jungkook:

I won't, I won't Good night, Tae. see you tomorrow.

TaeTae:

night, kookie. ;)

 

With that, the two boys went to sleep, dreaming about each other and what they will do in Daegu and how they'll hide it from the others.

 


	2. Let's Go, Jungkookie!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two mischievous boys drive off to Daegu. When they arrive, Tae wants to go explore Daegu with BTS' maknae, but Jungkook is too dead tired to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the writing is a little bad and a little rushed, but I personally think it gets better later.

As they were finally walking to the car, Jungkook suddenly regretted saying yes. His feet kept moving, but his body resisted. Once they got in, Tae immediately looked over at the precious maknae. He could clearly see the wheels turning in Jungkook's head.

"Jungkook-ah.." Tae shook his head, "stop worrying. We'll be fine.."

"I mean, I trust you, Tae... but what if we _do_ end up getting caught?" Jungkook worried. A little bit too much, maybe. He should just enjoy this...right? Tae gave up on answering his repeated question and started the car.

Jungkook knew it was going to be a very long ride until they actually got to Daegu and probably longer, what with traffic and all. He put his earbuds in and put on Bigbang-sunbaenim's Loser. He only got to listen to half of the song before Tae reached over and pulled the plugs out.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?" Jungkook snapped.

"Because we're on our vacation. It's suppose to be us – together," he explained, his eyes begging.

"Hyung... Are you ok?" The younger suddenly got worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine... why'd you ask?" He responded almost robotically, looking down.

"Why did you suddenly want to come to Daegu?"

"I don't know... I miss it, I guess. It is my hometown."

"Oh..." Jungkook didn't know what to say. He backed off, ready to question him again later. He watched his friend closely, wondering what was going on in his head. Tae put in a CD and some of their songs came on. Soon after, Jungkook fell asleep.

Once they arrived to their hotel, Tae woke him up as subtly as possible.

"Jungkook-ah.." Tae whispered, slightly shaking him, "wake up.." he tried. Nothing happened. He looked at Jungkook. His soft lips were closed, head tilted at a 45˚ angle. _Aish, he looks so good sleeping. I just wanna cuddle up beside him,_ thought Tae, smiling. He started to lean in closer, lust filling his eyes, when Jungkook started to shift in his sleep. He pulled back and attempted to wake him up again.

"Jungkook-ah! Maknae!" he spoke at his normal volume. "Wake up! We're here!" He saw Jungkook's head move a little, stretching a bit from the long drive. He grunted, waking up slowly. Tae grinned at him, Jungkook's eyes falling on his smile first.

"Come on, Kookie! Let's grab our stuff and check in, yeah?" he said. All he wanted to do was lean over and give the maknae a kiss on the cheek, but he knew he couldn't do that because of business difficulties. _Goddamn, Jungkook, why do you have to be so cute?_ he thought. Jungkook stretched out his legs, putting his hands on his thighs. Tae opened the door and got out to get the stuff from the trunk.

Once they got into the hotel, they went up to the service desk to check in.

"Annyeonghaseyo," Tae said, bowing. The receptionist greeted them back, also bowing. "Ne, we booked room 217 for 2 weeks."

"Ne, I have it open right now. Let me just grab your room keys," she look under her computer, pulling out two cards and putting them in an envelope. "Enjoy your stay!" she said. They walked into the elevator, waiting for it to go up. As they finally reached the 3rd floor, Jungkook looked at Tae, realizing that he was the happiest he's seen him in months. They walked to their room, which wasn't actually that far from the elevator.

"You wanna do it, Kookie?" Tae asked. He smiled and pulled out a card from the paper pocket they were given at the desk. Inserting the card in the small slot, they heard a clicking sound and Jungkook pushed on the heavy door. They lugged their bags into the room and Jungkook flopped onto the bed.

"Jungkook-ah! You don't want to walk around? Go sightseeing?" Taehyung pouted.

"Hyung. We just got to Daegu. I'm tired," he closed his eyes. 20 seconds later, he felt Taehyung pulling him out of bed.

"Up, up, up!" He yelled.

"Tae-hyung, why didn't you just go stay with your parents? It's a lot cheaper.." The younger asked, sitting up. Tae looked a little offended, but responded anyways,

"It's suppose to be you and I. No parents. Sure, it costs some money, but that's ok." He mumbled.

"Ah... Y-you didn't have to spend money for me.." Jungkook replied.

"It's ok, I wanted this vacation to be you and I anyways. Anyways, let's go out and look around, ok?"

"Ok..." he got up from the bed and they went back out the door. They had to put on face masks in order to hide themselves from the rest of the public, which was pretty annoying, but they got used to it very quickly. They put it on in the elevator, but Jungkook could once again see Tae's boxy smile through the mask and for the first time in what seemed like forever, he finally honestly, truly smiled.

They reached the lobby and Tae realized that he left his hat upstairs. Promising Jungkook to be back in a second, he went back up the elevator. Left alone, Jungkook pulled out his phone and ran through the Twitter feed. he had posted a picture of him and Tae in the car ride here at a pit stop. He read the comments, which were mostly English, but he could still read them. They read 'TaeKook!' and 'SO CUTE TOGETHER!' or 'awe i love you guys together.. stay healthy!'. He was grateful that his fans loved to see them together, but he had to think on the fact that he and Tae had a ship name. They weren't even dating. He was happy that they could see them together. 

At this moment, Tae came down the stairs.

"What'chya looking at?" he asked, attempting to peek at the phone.

"Nothing!" Jungkook lied, shutting off his phone as quickly as possible.

"Mm... liar!" Tae said, punching Jungkook in the shoulder playfully.

"We can look at it later.." Jungkook said shyly.

"Hm.." Tae thought.. "NOPE!" His speedy hands grabbed Jungkook's phone and quickly typed in the password.

"Hey! Give it back, hyung!" he yelled, smiling. As soon as the Twitter page loaded due to the really bad wi-fi at the hotel, he scrolled through the page, looking at what Jungkook was looking at. He also read the English comments perfectly, though he couldn't speak it well.

"Awe, look, Kookie! We're cute together!" he playfully mocked the fans. Jungkook caught him off guard and grabbed the phone back from his hyung.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's just go, ok?" His face turned red from embarrassment.

"Ok, ok," Jungkook started to walk out of the lobby when Tae locked arms with him and forced him to skip out of the lobby. But he was ok with it. At least it was with Tae..


	3. We Made It....

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook go shopping in the center of Daegu and receive an unexpected surprise.

It took 20 minutes from their hotel to walk down to the center of Daegu, but Jungkook was ok with it since he got to see everything the streets had to offer. They stopped and tried the ice cream, shopped at the merchandise stores (and saw some of their own albums in there), and ate lunch on the way there. The center of Daegu was actually extremely busy. Nobody noticed them, luckily, but there were a lot of people. Jungkook looked around at all the neon signs and billboards around him.

"Oh my god..." Jungkook breathed.

"What? Never been to Daegu?"

"No... Not in a long time anyways." He looked around at all the signs surrounding him. "Ddeokbokki, JaJangMyun". Finally, he looked at the tallest building he could see, just out of habit and curiosity.

"Oh my god, Tae..." He said, forgetting his honorifics, although it was ok since they were close friends. He tapped him on the shoulder since he was facing the street behind them.

"What?" He responded as the he turned around. "Holy hell..." he read the sign, shocked.

 

**방탄소년단**

**WE ARE BULLETPROOF!**

 

They stood there, shocked at the giant billboard of themselves on the building in the Danger era. Though they had just released Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa Part I and the Danger photoshoot was pretty old, they were still surprised. In front of it were groups and groups of people executing amazing dance covers to their songs. The music was blaring and even from how far away Jungkook was, he could hear I Need U, Boy in Luv, Danger, and We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2.

"Jungkook... We made it..." Tae told him. Jungkook stood silent beside him, almost brought to tears.

"I really don't think we should be up there..." Jungkook mumbled. "It should be BIGBANG or Shinee up there..."

"As a trainee, I never thought I'd make it to this day. To the day where my parents could walk to the center of town and immediately see where I am now." One small tear ran down his face and into his mask. He quickly wiped away the wet path it made and looked over to Jungkook. The younger one looked like he was going to crying too. What neither of them knew was that A.R.M.Y knew they were there, but didn't want to ruin their day by going up to them for autographs, so they started shouting hints over to where they were.

"Kim Namjoon! Kim Seokjin! Min Yoongi! Jung Hoseok! Park Jimin! Kim Taehyung! Jeon Jungkook! BTS! Bangtan Sonyeondan, hwaiting!" Jungkook looked up and they saw their fans looking straight up at them and smiling, fists in the air, cheering them on ever so discreetly. This was enough to bring Jungkook to tears. Head in his hands, he faced the wall of a building. Tae went over and put his hand on his shoulder. His sobs of joy finally subsided into hiccups as he started calming down. He faced Tae again and hugged him as hard as he could.

"They support us, Tae. They were shouting our names, they know who we are," was all Jungkook could say at the time, his head resting on his hyung's shoulder.

"Bangtan hwaiting, right?" the older said as he hugged him back. They stayed there, holding each other, for what seemed like an eternity. "Are you ok, Jungkook?" Tae wanted to make sure he was ok before starting to walk again.

"Yeah... Let's go walk around," he said. After a while of silence, Tae started up a sensitive conversation.

"Why did you start sobbing back there?" he asked quietly.

"Because I never thought I would make it this far. I never expected us to be this big. As a trainee, I wanted to give up so many times and I wanted to quit, but the dream of being on stage, performing for those who love me, love us- it was enough to keep me going. At that time, of course, I only thought 'well, one can dream'. It's different when a dream suddenly becomes reality. You have no idea how to face it. I think we all experienced many hardships as trainees. Our group–you guys are the best members I could ever ask for," Jungkook finally told Tae, holding back a sob at the end.

"Hey, you know we're always here for you. You can come to me or Jin-hyung or Namjoon-hyung if you ever need anything. Please...don't hold anything in. It's really not good for you. I promise we'll always be here." He slung his arm around Jungkook who was looking at the floor. "Look at me," Tae told him. Jungkook looked up. "You're our golden maknae. If you don't feel comfortable going to the hyungs, come to Jimin or me. We can't bear to see you unhappy." He smiled his box smile again to end his comforting words. The maknae finally smiled back and put his hand at Tae's waist. They walked together past many other shops. A lot of them were merchandise shops, selling CDs and sweatshirts and such. The more he peeked into the stores, the prouder both of them were to be part of BTS. Their thoughts became intruded when other sets of thoughts started to settle in. Crap, he's being cute again, Tae thought to himself. He debated whether or not he should be taking his arm off of Jungkook's shoulders. His heart started to pound and his mouth went dry as he thought about life with the younger boy. He needed something to snap him out of it. He's acting so nice... No.. I can't be falling in love with him. Besides, his best friend is Jimin and hyung would kill me if I fell in love with his "BFF", Jungkook pushed the thought aside.

"Hey. Like I said earlier, Jungkook. Bangtan, hwaiting!" Tae cheered, breaking both of their thought clouds.

"Yeah, Bangtan hwaiting.."


	4. One Night in a Strange City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook get back from the glorious day in Daegu, but what happens when things get a little sweet?
> 
> This isn't the translation to the skit, by the way, although it does mention the song in it.

When they finally got back to the hotel, it was quite late and both boys were tired as all hell. Jungkook flopped on the bed and almost fell asleep when he was interrupted by Tae.

"Hey, you wanna go shower first?"

"Ughhh you go first," he groaned, eyes closed.

"Ya, you look dead tired."

"Mm, I am," he mumbled.

"You go first then. I can wait," Tae insisted.

"No, it's fine. You go." Tae walked over to Jungkook, observing him to make sure he wasn't sick. Holding his two hands in his own, Tae copied the movement he did that morning and pulled him up.

"Ah, not again, Tae," the younger complained, eyes still closed.

"Go shower," Tae ordered once Jungkook could stand on his own.

"I told you, go shower first. I'll be sleeping on the bed," Jungkook said as he walked back to the bed.

"Ya!" Tae pushed him the other way, towards the bathroom. "Go. You're tired, you should go to bed earlier."

"Fine, fine." The maknae walked into the bathroom and turned on warm water in the shower. He immediately felt relieved as soon as he stepped in. Meanwhile, out in the other room, Tae turned on the TV and started watching Spongebob. Jungkook heard it from the shower and started laughing.

"What?!" Tae shouted as he walked in, smiling.

"Hyung!" he said in between laughs. "You're 21 years old and still watching Spongebob?"

"Hey! It's a good show!" the older boy defended.

"Sure, Tae. Whatever you say," the maknae said, still smiling. "Hyung, I need to get out. I'm done showering," Jungkook suddenly switched subjects.

"Oh, ok." As Tae closed the door carefully, Jungkook turned off the shower and headed out with a towel around his waist. He walked towards the bed that Tae wasn't sitting on and faced towards the wall.

_Dammit, Jeon Jungkook. Freaking 6 pack, walking out with your hair all wet like that. It's like you want me to fall for you,_ Tae thought. In order to stop him from going over to the younger boy and wrapping his arms around his beautiful 6-pack, Tae went into the bathroom and showered as Jungkook changed.

Wasting water in the shower, he thought and thought and thought, debating whether or not he should be talking to Jungkook about what he's been thinking about him. His thoughts were interrupted by his dongsaeng.

"Hey, Tae! You've been in there for 40 freaking minutes. Get out!" Jungkook yelled from the other room.

"Oh, sorry!" he turned off the water and stepped out of the bathroom, just as Jungkook did, with a towel around his waist. Tae grabbed his clothes and went back into the warm bathroom to change instead of changing outside. After 10 minutes, he came back out into the other room to see Jungkook lying in bed, watching the TV curiously.

"Jungkook, I thought you were tired," said Tae, climbing into the bed beside Jungkook's.

"Well yeah, but there's a TV," the younger joked. They laughed and Jungkook diverted his attention from the TV to Tae. Their eyes met and they were both sure the other felt something as sparks flew in the air. The few seconds that felt like eternity in which their stares touched each other in ways they didn't imagine it could. At that moment, Tae had to ruin it by laughing.

"Let's watch some TV, but we're going ziplining tomorrow, so we might wanna get to sleep earlier." Tae explained, smiling at Jungkook.

"Yeah..." was all Jungkook could say, a little pissed off that his thoughts were interrupted. After a short time, all of his worries were dissolved as he realized that he was watching a cartoon show with his favorite person in the world. Alone together.

_It's a perfect night,_ Jungkook thought. He walked over to the window and looked up into the night sky.

"What's wrong?" Tae asked, obviously concerned.

"Nothing, nothing. Actually, everything's perfect..." Jungkook said hesitiantly, looking into the Daegu skyline. "Come here.." Tae walked over and looked out the window with him.

"Beautiful, isn't it? The Daegu skyline. It's different at night. Prettier." He explained.

"It is... Busan had skylines, but they weren't as beautiful as this one." Jungkook confessed. Suddenly, he felt something warm slip into his hand and looked down. Their hands intertwined and Tae was staring him in the eyes, smiling warmly.

"Tae..." Jungkook tried to say.

"Shhh. I know, it might be weird to you, but-" Tae was cut off as Jungkook leaned closer and softly kissed him on the lips, his hands snaking their way up to his neck. Their hands disconnected and the older boy kissed back as he placed his hands at Jungkook's hips. The moment lasted for a short while and when Jungkook finally pulled back, Tae was disappointed at the loss. The maknae was looking at him, wild eyed and confused.

"I-I'm sorry..." He said, suddenly bowing. 

"Jungkook-"

"No, the business said no relationships allowed so no relationships allowed. I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry," he quickly explained.

"Hey-" Tae tried to speak, but was cut off once again.

"I need to go out for a walk. You should sleep. I think I need some fresh air. Good night, Tae," Jungkook grabbed his leather jacket, mask, and room key as he left to go walk a few blocks outside. As soom as he left, Tae felt lonely. He didn't know what to do, so he sat down on the bed for a while and thought.

_I never thought he'd do that... Yeah the company said no relationships, but isn't it ok as long as it's secret? Is he afraid?_ He wondered. He decided that there was no time to worry about that right now and he would just talk to Jungkook in the morning. Grabbing the remote, he shut off the TV and climbed back into bed as he pulled the cover over him and went to sleep.

Meanwhile...

Jungkook waited patiently for the elevator, hoping that Tae wouldn't follow him and try to talk to him. He didn't need that right now. He knew it. He freaking knew he would fall for him and he knew that going into this vacation, and yet he still came. He cursed under his breath as he put on his mask just in case there were people in the elevator. As he expected at this time of day, the elevator was empty. When he reached the lobby, the person at the main desk looked up, but didn't ask where he was going and he was grateful for that. He'd rather not be bothered right now. As soon as he took a step outside, he felt the strong Daegu wind hit his clothes and immediately felt cold. He wrapped his jacket tighter around him as he pulled out his phone since it was vibrating in his pocket.

**_Park Jimin (2 missed calls)_ **

He punched in his password (which happened to be the word maknae) and tapped on one of the "missed call" buttons to call his hyung back. 

_Ring, ring._

"Mm, hello?" the older boy spoke sleepily, clearly just woken up.

"Hyung, why'd you call?"

"That was some time ago, Jungkook," he explained, annoyed.

"Well, yeah, but I wanna know." Jungkook half whined.

"You were lying, weren't you?" Jimin suddenly said in a threatening tone.

"About what? Tae?"

"Yes, about Tae. He didn't just want to ask you if you wanted water, did he?"

"How would you know, Jimin? Were you there?" Jungkook strained disrespectfully.

"Ya, don't talk to your hyung like that!" the older boy almost shouted, forgetting it was late in the middle of the night.

"Aish, I'm sorry, ok? It's been a rough day," Jungkook apologized.

"Rough day where, Jungkook? Because you're definitely not here," his hyung pressed on.

"I'm...I'm in Daegu with Tae."

"I knew it. I freaking knew it," Jimin mumbled. Jungkook heard a creaking on the other side of the phone and he knew Jimin punched the bed.

"I'm sorry I liked to you guys, but you know Namjoon-hyung would never let us leave," Jungkook pleaded.

"And you know perfectly well that's for a good reason. We just came out with a new album, Jungkook. And we're working on another. Why the hell would you slack off now?!" He was extremely upset now and practically yelling, obviously not caring if the other members heard him.

"You can't tell them, hyung."

"And why not? I will, Jungkook." 

"And what will that do? Huh? Get us fired? Is that what you want, Jimin?" Jungkook almost cried.

"You can't slack off like this, Jungkook! It's irresponsible of you!" Jimin continued to yell through the phone.

"It's not like I'm trying to! I just wanted to be alone with Tae for a while, ok?!" Jungkook started yelling.

"Why?!" Neither of them spoke. Silence fell for a few seconds. "Jeon Jungkook. I don't think you heard me perfectly the first time so let me ask the question again. Why did you want to spend time with Taehyung?"

"It's none of your business," Jungkook responded coldly. "I need to go." 

"Jung-!" Jimin was cut off as Jungkook hung up and shoved the phone back into his pocket. It had been about 10 minutes since he had been inside and living that awkward moment, so he decided to go back up.

When he got back to the room, the lights were turned off and so was the TV. In a sigh of relief, he realized that Tae had already gone to sleep, so he quietly took his jacket and face mask off and climbed into bed. Putting his earbuds in, he fell asleep listening to the voices of the members, who he missed, in their new skit, "One Night in a Strange City".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's a little sudden, but it happened. I promise it'll slow down later.


	5. Love Hurts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jungkook is scared to talk about what happened the night before with Tae. The famous G-Dragon is in this new chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: This chapter is going to contain some sensitive topics. This includes depression and self-harm, so read at your own risk!

Jungkook woke up the next morning to a ringing phone in the room next to them. Not the best thing to wake up to. He slowly shifted in his sleep to face the wall. There was still no light pouring in, which he would able to see by the way the curtains were arranged. He tossed and turned for the next half hour and realized that he probably wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Giving up, his hands swept the bed underneath the covers to try to find his phone, moving as little as possible. Once he found them, he pulled them out from under the cover, realizing that the headphones were still attached to it and still playing quite loud music, but they were insanely tangled. Pushing the earbuds to the side, he checked the time. It read 4:26 am.

 _Goddamn, I should probably just try to go back to sleep again. Well, I did already try... Plus,the music is playing freaking loud, too. I'm surprised I'm not deaf by now,_ Jungkook thought. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and quietly went to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, he took off his shorts (he slept shirtless). To wake him up, he didn't let the water warm up that much before he shoved his hands under it and splashed some onto his face. Turning the handle some more, he finally let the water warm up and stepped underneath it. He was in there for about 10 minutes before he realized he should probably get out before Tae woke up so he could have some hot water. 

Jungkook walked out of the bathroom and over to the luggage to see what clothes he had to wear. He picked up the first things he saw: a tank top with longer arm holes and some Michael Jordan shorts. Since his hyung wasn't up yet, he just changed beside his bed, putting his clothes on it. Just as he slid his tank top on, Tae shifted in his sleep, facing the window. By now, it was 4: 53 am, but he would have to wake up soon anyways since they were going ziplining. Jungkook stopped and stared at the older boy, debating if he should wake Tae up or not because of their "moment" last night. Realizing it was the right thing to do, the 19 year old boy walked over and slowly shook Tae.

"Hyung..." he said cautiously. "We're going ziplining today, wake up." Once again, he shifted in his sleep.

"Wuah!" Tae yelled as he jumped up, scaring the living soul out of Jungkook.

"Holy crap!" he yelled, jumping back. Tae just sat there, smiling dorkishly. "Don't do that, Tae. Scared the shite out of me."

"Ah, sorry." Tae said, still smiling. After a few seconds, Jungkook finally snapped back to reality.

"Oh shoot," he mumbled. The older boy didn't hear him until he started to talk at his normal tone. "I-I'm gonna go grab some coffee, do you want anything?" Jungkook tried to rush out of the room quickly.

"Jungkook..." Tae tried.

"Do you want anything?" Jungkook repeated, still trying to grab his things quickly. Tae got up and quickly walked towards him as Jungkook walked towards the door. Tae was just a bit faster and reached him before he could even open it.

Jungkook!" he reached out to grab his shoulder and jerked his hand towards him, forcing Jungkook to look at him.

"I told you I'm going downstairs to get coffee..." he mumbled.

"You can't seriously be avoiding what happened last night," Tae told him boldly.

"And what if I am?" Jungkook responded cruelly.

"It happened. So what? You're just gonna avoid me for the rest of your life?" he started raising his voice a little.

"It wasn't suppose to happen, Tae! I made a mistake!" Jungkook yelled back.

"You don't know that, ok? You don't know that you made a mistake. This could be the start of something  new! Something that we've lost because of broken promises before. This could be the start of trusting again." Tae begged.

"But it's not!" A tear ran down Jungkook's face and Tae stepped back, shocked. "It can't be, Tae! Don't you get it? We are idols. We are singers, rappers, dancers. We cannot date. Why did you think we went around wearing masks, hm? Why do you think we perform in front of thousands of people every week? Why do you think we were up on that goddamn billboard? Tell me, Tae!" he shouted, completely unaware of the rooms that were surrounding them. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes until Tae spoke up.

"Let's sit and talk." Jungkook rolled his eyes. "Please. We work together, for god's sake. You can't ignore me, Jungkook. We have to work this out."

"Let me go, Tae. For the last time, I'm going downstairs to get coffee."

"You can't avoid me. We're in BTS, you can't hate me forever."

"I don't hate you, ok? I just feel uncomfortable right now," Jungkook explained.

"Then let's talk about it. Come on," Tae grabbed his hand and dragged him to the bed. Jungkook hesitantly started walking with him, hands intertwined once again. They sat together on the end of the messy bed as Tae let go of Jungkook's hand and faced him. The younger boy was looking down, so Tae lifted his hand up to Jungkook's cheek and pushed up gently, forcing their eyes to lock.

Jungkook's face felt hot and blood rushed to his cheeks. He tried to look down again, but Tae's tired hand was strong under Jungkook's chin and wouldn't let him win.

"Jungkook..."

"I really am sorry that I did that last night. It's just, I don't know how to hide it anymore," he apologized again.

"Stop saying sorry," Tae ordered. "You don't need to. Maybe it's ok, Jungkook. Maybe it'll work out well for us in the end. Maybe no one will actually have to know. Maybe-"

"Jimin called me last night," Jungkook suddenly confessed, cutting Tae off. He looked shocked and didn't say anything for some time.

"What did he say?" he said after a while, looking down.

"He was mad that I lied."

"You lied about what?" Tae asked, confused.

"I lied to them after you asked me if I wanted to come to Daegu with you. They asked me what happened upstairs and I lied and told them that you wanted to ask me if I wanted water. But Jimin knew that I was lying. He gave me a weird look, a threatening one. Last night, when I was outside, he called me twice, but I missed both of them, so I called him back. He yelled at me for slacking off," he explained quietly.

"Hey," Tae put his hand on Jungkook's shoulder. "I don't care what he thinks, ok? Yeah, we might be slacking off, but something is here, Jungkook. You can't ignore it."

"Tae, I'm sorry, but it's wrong. Like you said, we're in a band together. We're in BTS, we can't let our feelings get in the way."

"Jungkook, think about this," Tae pleaded.

"I have, Tae. I've thought about it all night and our first priorities are BTS and our fans and family. Our relationship would just get in the way. If we're doing our job right, our relationship wouldn't last anyways," Jungkook said as he got up. "I'm going to grab coffee."

"Jungkook-"

"Tae! I'm going to grab coffee," he said through gritted teeth. This time, he quickly grabbed everything he needed and dashed out the door, his heart beating out of his chest. Tae quickly followed him out of the room, trying to catch up to him. 

"Stop trying to follow me, Tae." Jungkook threateningly said.

"Well stop trying to run away!" the older boy yelled down the short hallway. Jungkook stopped and pivoted on his foot, facing Tae again.

"We'll work this out later. As for right now, leave me the hell alone," he said, tears welling up in his eyes, blocking his vision. Tae was left silent as the other boy faced the other way and quickly walked down the wall. Dreading to go back to the room and not follow Jungkook, he walked back, shoulders slumped, as tears fell from his black eyes.

"Freaking stupid, stupid, stupid," he chastised himself, almost wanting to bang his head on the wall. Keeping in mind that there were rooms all around him and to be courteous, he waited until he got into his room and flopped back onto his still messy bed to yell at himself out loud.

"Why the hell would you fall for him, huh? You knew this was going to happen, you knew he was going to hurt you, you knew he was going to reject you!"  he said out loud. Right now, alone and stabbed in the heart, he cried out loud. Cried for help, cried for forgiveness, cried for mercy, cried for someone to save him from himself.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Jungkook was angry, and he knew that as he almost punched the elevator wall, but there were people all around him, so he didn't.

As the elevator finally reached the lobby, he walked over to the counter where coffee was going to be served everyday early in the morning.

"Rough day, huh?" Jungkook was startled by the unfamiliar voice beside him. He turned to his left, trying to figure out who was saying that. Like Jungkook, the man had a face mask on. It took him a moment until it clicked.

"Oh my god..." Jungkook said, his heart beating fast. The owner of the voice was his ultimate bias, G-Dragon from BIGBANG. "You're G-Dragon!! Why are you in Daegu?" he asked, shocked.

"Well, we wanted to promote here. Long story. I heard you and someone yelling on our floor?" G-Dragon immediately went to the point.

"Yeah. Something against company rules happened last night," Jungkook said shyly. G-Dragon chuckled.

"Everything you're doing right now-being in Daegu is breaking the company rules. Listen, Jungkook, you need to go talk to him. Like he said, you work together. Go work it out." Jungkook could see the encouraging smile under the BIGBANG face-mask that the sunbaenim wore.

"Yeah,  sure." Jungkook said emptily.

"Good. Look, I gotta go. Give me your phone and I'll check up to see how you're doing, ok?" he took his iPhone out and gave it to GD so he could punch in his number. The older boy left as he waved goodbye and Jungkook finished his coffee so he could go upstairs and apologize to his hyung.

When he got back to the room...

"Tae!" he yelled, trying to find out where he was. Jungkook wandered around the room, checking everywhere he could.

"Come on, Tae. Let's talk, I'm sorry!" he called out. He walked around again, checking the beds, the corners, everywhere, but he couldn't find him. But he forgot to check one place.. _the bathroom!_ he thought, suddenly panicked. The door was closed, so he knocked before entering.

"Tae.." he said softly. Jungkook pushed on the door, seeing nothing for a few seconds. What he saw next will haunt him forever.

"Kim Taehyung!"Jungkook yelled. Tae was sitting in the bathtub next to a bottle of opened pills. Blood was running down his arm. Jungkook searched around for the tool, soon finding a razor blade lying around. 

"Oh my god.." Jungkook started crying. The older boy was passed out in the tub. He bent down next to Tae, shaking him soft enough not to hurt him, but hard enough so he would have woken up. He didn't. The bottle that was on the floor was half empty. The pills were scattered on the floor and he wondered where he even got them. He didn't get to an answer until he put two fingers on Tae's wrist, trying hard to feel his pulse. It was weak, but it was there. He carefully put his arms underneath Tae and lifted him up to carry him towards the bed. He knew how to treat him, but he was afraid to hurt him even more, which would probably kill him.

"What to do, what to do, what to do..." Jungkook freaked out, tears running down his face. He looked around for things to heal his friend, but found it hard to find something in a freaking hotel. It was impossible to call an ambulance because they would call the company and they'd probably get fired. Will he be able to save Tae by himself or will BTS lose it's 4D, charming 95'er?

 


	6. I'm Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jungkook tries to heal Tae and talks things out with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's still a good amount of triggering subjects in this chapter. Once again, read at your own risk!

Tae woke up to soft classical music, shifting as he felt a cold towel on his head. He moved to sit up, but he felt a sharp pain in his left arm and fell back to the bed. He couldn't remember anything that happened. They were in a fight, then Jungkook left, then nothing. Pulling off the covers, he wanted to find out what the pain was. In his disbelief, he stared, open mouthed, at the blood covered bandage on his left arm. Then he remember. Pills, razor blades. He tried to kill himself. 

"Kim Taehyung..." he heard a shaky voice say. It startled him, but nonetheless, he knew the voice all too well.

"Jungkook..." he tried to explain.

"Don't scare me like that, Taehyung. Do you know how startling it was to see you in the freaking _bathtub,_ eyes closed, with blood running down your arm?! All I wanted was some coffee, I just wanted to be alone. That does not mean you can go and try to kill yourself!" he yelled.

"Let me explain," Taehyung pleaded, extremely close to tears.

"I thought you were dead, Taehyung. I thought we had lost you forever. I thought–"

"Jungkook!" he interrupted the younger boy, Jungkook jumping back. "Let's just talk about it, please. Talk about what happened just now, talk about last night." He thought about it for a moment before slowly walking over to the bed, sitting next to Taehyung.

"It's your time to explain, so go ahead and explain."

"I couldn't stand it, Jungkook. I really couldn't."

"Couldn't stand what?" he asked, obviously still mad and concerned.

"You not wanting to talk to me. You rejecting me. I know...I know it's not the right thing to do and I know it's against the rules, but isn't it ok as long as we're happy?" Tae said.

"No, it's not..." Jungkook explained. "It's not okay because it could ruin our careers as idols, as singers. All that hard work we've put in would just be gone. It would've been for nothing. All the suffering we went through as trainees, all those years. Do you want that, Tae?" 

"No, of course not. I love what we do, but I...." he couldn't finish his sentence.

"You what?"

"I love you, too." Jungkook couldn't say anything. He couldn't fire anything back or yell at him. All he could do was stare.

"I didn't mean to scare you like that. It was a moment of weakness, I guess."

"Did you want to kill yourself?" the younger boy asked quietly.

"I don't know, Ju–"

"Liar," Jungkook said accusingly. "You do know. Did you want to kill yourself? Tell me the truth, Tae."

"I..." he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"Taehyung." Jungkook gave another stare.

"Yeah." Jungkook head turned as he flinched, clearly hurt. "Like I said before, it was a moment of weakness. I wasn't thinking straight."

"Clearly..."

"I promise I won't do it again... I will never ever scare you like that again," Tae promised. Jungkook was silent. "How about you say something? Things on your mind. Something, anything." 

"Um, ok..." Jungkook agreed, slightly reluctant. "Look, Tae, I really really do like you a lot. I really do want to date you, I want sparks to fly like they did when we kissed." Tae's expression lit up a bit as he smiled.

"But it's against the rules. Dating would get in the way. Promises would be broken. It's always our music, members, and fans first. When we can handle all of that, then we can go for dating."

"I understand, Jungkook. I really do. I don't know why I thought it would work. I guess I just have too much hope for when I'm an idol."

"I can understand where you're coming from. When I first became an idol, especially after the first time on stage, I wanted to feel loved. There were so many hard times. Practicing the choreo for 8 or more hours a day, singing everyday, getting everything perfect. It was hard and I understand that. But the members love you more than any boyfriend could. Tae, I might love you as a member and a friend more than I could love you as a boyfriend." Jungkook confessed.

"I'm sorry, about everything. but thank you for understanding where I'm coming from. Oh! And thank you for treating me yourself and not calling the hospital," he chuckled. Jungkook smiled.

"Yeah, no problem. We would've gotten in a lot more trouble if I called the hospital anyways," Jungkook joked. They were both smiling at each other and once again, they felt something in the air. That was until Jungkook decided to ruin the moment by going to turn on the TV.

"Here. We'll rest for the rest of the day. Well, you will. I'll be sitting here, right next to you." Tae tried to sit up, failing once again as a sharp pain engulfed his left forearm. He winced, and Jungkook ran to his side.

"Ah, ah, aish, hyung. You need to rest. The harm done to your body internally and externally is seriously bad. Let me help you." Jungkook carefully put one arm under Tae's back and held the arm that was unhurt to help him sit up. He laid him against the soft pillow and climbed into the empty spot beside him. Jungkook leaned his head on his hyung's shoulder, careful not to cause him pain. He looked for a facial reaction and receiving a smile, he let the rest of the weight of his head fall on Tae's shoulder.

Curious and thinking that he was missing something from all of this, Tae looked over at the clock. It now read 1:43.

"Weren't we suppose to be going somewhere, Jungkook? That's why you woke me up so early right? I mean, you were up at like, 4 am," Tae remembered, looking down at him.

"How do you know that? You were awake?" Jungkook was surprised.

"Well no, but yeah. I was woken up from some banging on the wall. I realized you were in the shower, but I went back to sleep and woke up when you were changing." Jungkook's cheeks turned red. Quickly, he answered the question.

"Yeah, we were suppose to go ziplining, but then everything happened and yeah."

"Crap! Ziplining! Jungkook, let's go!" Tae said, climbing out of bed. Jungkook grabbed his right arm since the left one was hurt and carefully pulled him back onto the bed.

"Tae, it's ok. We can go ziplining any other day. We can do anything any other day. One thing that I–we as BTS– can't afford is losing you. Your health isn't good. The bleeding stopped, thank God, but your systems may not be fully functional. You did try to swallow more than 20 pills at a time." The older boy thought for a while and, agreeing to stay, he climbed back into the bed.

"Mm, see I'm smart," Jungkook bragged, snuggling in closer to Tae's chest.

"Yes you are, Jungkookie. Yes you are." For a couple seconds in what felt like forever, Tae once again smiled his boxy, honest smile and Jungkook once again felt at home.


	7. Kaja!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook have a little fun in Daegu!

Jungkook and Tae ended up falling asleep next to each other the night before with the TV still on. They had called the ziplining place that night to tell them that they were going to go today instead and they had been told that they have exactly one spot open for them. Once again today, Jungkook woke up before Tae, this time at 3:23 am. He still couldn't go back to sleep after an hour, so he woke up and did his regular things before grabbing his phone and listening to some music while keeping an eye on Tae. He checked his wrist to see what the damage was. The cuts were healing, but anyone could see that it was deep. Luckily, it was cold here in Daegu, so he could easily hide it with a sweatshirt. The pills were probably all dissolved and starting to take effect on his body, but for now, he looked okay. At 4:15, he finally decided to wake Tae up so they could actually go to ziplining today.

 

"Hey Tae... you need to wake up," Jungkook started softly. The only response he got from his older friend was a quiet grunt and a shift to face the other side. "Not gonna get up? Ok.." Jungkook challenged. He quickly calculated a way to wake him up without hurting him. Once he got it, he climbed off his side of the bed and to the bottom of it. Without hesitating, he jumped onto one side of Tae that he knew was not hurt and started yelling.

"You want me to be Namjoon-hyung?? OK! GOOD MORNINGGGG! GOOD MORNINGGG! WAKE UP, TAE!!! WAKE UPPPP!!!!" Startled by the yelling, Tae jerked up, immediately awake.

"Wuah! Jungkook! Don't do that!" he laughed.

"'Wuah, don't do that!'" Jungkook mocked. "Go get ready, Tae Tae!!! We need to go ziplining today!!!" The older boy got up from the bed and went into the bathroom. He didn't get that much privacy before being intruded.

"Jungkook! What now?" he asked jokingly.

"I just wanted to check that you were ok. Why don't you take off the bandage and I can grab another one."

"Ok.." Tae was honesly scared to take it off. He had not seen the damage, but he had felt it. He didn't know how deep the cuts were, but he saw the blood that soaked the bandage to a dark red. As Jungkook came back into the room, Tae started slowly unwrapping the red wrap. When he finally got to the last wrap, he could see his skin covered in dried blood.

"Here, I'll help you clean it off," Jungkook insisted.

"No, it's ok, I got it."

"Let me help you, Tae. You're still not ok yet." He walked over to the rack of towels and made sure they were soft enough before heading back over to the sink. He motioned for Tae to give him his wrist and Jungkook held Tae's forearm loosely as he turned on warm water. After 15 seconds, the water was comfortably warm and Jungkook slowly moved Tae's wrist under the faucet, closely watching for any reaction of pain. The older boy's face slowly showed started to show it as he winced. Jungkook started to softly wipe around the cuts, not touching them in case it hurt, which obviously it did. Not all of the cut was healed yet. The center of each cut was still raw. With the first towel soaked with blood, Jungkook grabbed another towel. This time, he gently pressed against the entire surface of the wrist, making sure that all the blood was gone. Tae was now facing the other way, trying hard to endure the pain. Tears started to form in his eyes.

"I know, I know, Tae. Just hang in there," Jungkook soothed. All Tae did was nod. Jungkook held the paper towel against his wrist for another minute or so before taking it off.

"Done." Jungkook finished.

"Thanks," Tae said, wiping his eyes.

"Yeah, hopefully it's all healed tomorrow. Now hurry up and let's go ziplining!" Tae copied what Jungkook did this morning and after an hour, they were finally ready to leave the hotel.

"You sure you're up to this, Tae?" Jungkook didn't want him to get any more hurt than he already was. His concern was clearly showing on his face.

"Yeah of course! If worst comes to worst, you can just be in front and hold onto the rope. It's ok, I'll be fine," Tae reassured him, his smile slowly coming back.

"Alright, let's go!" They grabbed their face masks and phones and Jungkook grabbed his wallet. They were walking over to the car when Jungkook stopped him.

"Hyung! Come here, let's get a selfie in!" Jungkook insisted. The older boy rolled his eyes sarcastically, but obliged, walking over to the maknae. Jungkook faced the screen towards them, smiling before taking the picture. "Hana, dul, set!" The screen flashed white for a nanosecond as it slowly processed the picture. He clicked on it to find a normal, happy picture instead of one where Tae was acting all cute or weird or 4D. Jungkook slid the phone back into the pocket of his sweatshirt as they continued to walk to the car. Once they got in, Tae started the engine.

"Hey, you want me to drive?" Jungkook asked.

"Are you even legally allowed to drive?" Tae teased the younger boy.

"Ya! Shut up!" Jungkook hit him playfully on the shoulder. They sat there, laughing and hitting each other"

"Jungkook. Seriously, I'm ok. Yeah, they're deep cuts, but it's ok. I'm well enough to drive." Jungkook put his hands up into the air as if to surrender.

"Fine by me, but I'm not falling asleep just in case you get us killed." As they pulled out of the hotel parking lot, Tae once again put on some softer music. Soon after, Jungkook fell asleep. _Staying awake, aye, Jungkook?_ he thought, laughing softly to himself.

After a long hour in the small car, they finally reached the ziplining place, which was on the other side of Daegu. The older boy was debating if he should wake Jungkook up subtly or not. _Maybe not. Revenge time, baby._

"JUNGKOOK!" Tae decided on yelling, just like Jungkook did. Jerking up, Jungkook woke up.

"What happened?! Are we dead?! Did you kill us, Tae??!!" Tae was facing the window, now laughing insanely hard. Jungkook started to laugh too.

"We're here, Jungkook," he said through laughs. They got out of the car and stretched in the parking lot before heading inside the giant building. Tae walked up to the lady behind the desk.

"Ne, we were booked for ziplining at 7:00 am," he said, his face mask still on and Jungkook standing shyly behind him.

"Yup, we have you right here. Please go into that room and wait patiently," the lady said, pointing to a room full of equipment for ziplining. The two boys bowed and followed one another into the room, sitting down.

After 15 minutes, someone came in, bowing.

"Annyeonghaseyo. I'm going to be your guide for today. I'll help you zipline correctly and put on the proper equipment and everything," he said, reaching up for the harnesses placed on hooks on the blue wall. Tae stood up first to get his equipment on. Compared to his regular clothes, this stuff was quite heavy. It kinda dragged him down, like a bulletproof vest. There was a harness on him that was connected to a vest with a hook on it. After him, Jungkook was given the same gear to put on. The guide then lead them out of the room and outside to the back, where everything was.

"Wuahhh... Daebak.." Jungkook looked around, wide-eyed. There were wood structures everywhere for high-roping and low-roping. There was a cord that stretched for at least a quarter of a mile as high as 60 feet in the air. There was another tall structure that was for bungee jumping, which they decided they would do right after the zipline. They had to climb a long ladder in order to get up to 60 feet, which was a little tiring for them, but not much of one since they had strong arms due to trainee training. 

"Ok, so there's someone who's going to be in the back and someone who is going to be in the front. Who is going to be where?" the instructor asked.

"I'll be in the front," Jungkook said. The instructor nodded, hooking him up onto the line first.

"Make sure you hold on, just in case anything happens, ok? Taehyung-ssi, you come to the back of him."

"Ok," Tae walked over, also getting hooked up onto the line.

"Alright, I'll count down from three. San, i, il, go!" They were pushed off of the platform and sent flying into the air.

"Alrigh-AH! Taehyung! Wuahhhh!!!" Jungkook yelled excitedly. They zoomed through the air, their feet just skimming the top of trees. They both looked down, not afraid of anything.

"Jungkook!! This is fun!!!" Tae yelled. Jungkook nodded in agreement. They cheered in the air and Jungkook was daring enough to put his hands up for just a few seconds.

"Yah! Maknae! You have to hold onto the line! Don't kill us!" Tae screamed, freaked out.

"Oh yeah." Jungkook slowly put down his hands and grabbed onto the line again, also remembering that the ziplining experience was almost over. He didn't want them to get yelled at.

Once they reached the other platform in the air, which was about 30 feet lower than the other one, they thanked the person who helped them off (not the same guide) and were escorted down a series of stairs that they climbed down.

"Hey, Tae," Jungkook asked.

"What?"

"Let's go bungee jumping, yeah?" 

"Well, didn't we already go with the hyungs?" he said, referring to the rest of BTS.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't go again." Tae bit his lip, deciding and thinking about what would happen if the hyungs found out. Would they be mad? Well, they're probably already mad that they're in Daegu, so might as well.

"Sure! Let's go!" he finally decided. They walked back into the building to the lady behind the desk.

"We can go bungee jumping too, right?" Tae asked after formal greetings.

"Ne, just wait a few seconds," she said. She picked up the phone and told someone on the other line that they wanted to go bungee jumping. "Just wait over there, ok?" Jungkook and Tae nodded their heads as they walked to the seats the lady was pointing to.

After about 10 minutes, someone else walked into the room, holding nothing but the phone. She leaned over the desk, pointed to Jungkook and Tae, then told the two boys to stand up and follow her. She led them to the 120 foot high bungee jumping station. Putting on their equipment, she explained how this was going to work.

"You can both go up at the same time, but you'll have to jump separately. Which one wants to go first?" Jungkook immediately looked at his friend, knowing he had trouble jumping last time and would probably need the encouragement from up there.

"I'll go first," Tae read his eyes. They walked into the lift, slowly rising towards the sun setting sky. Once they reached the top, Jungkook looked down, stumbling backwards a few steps.

"Daekbak.." he said, a little scared. "You ready, Tae?"

"No, not really," he said truthfully, smiling a little bit.

"It'll be fine. You did it once, I'm sure you can do it again. I'll be right beside you." Tae stepped out onto the protruding platform from the inside of the left. He saw all the buildings in the center of Daegu, even from this far away.

"Ready?" the instructor asked, not waiting for an answer. "Sam, i, il, go!" Nothing happened. Tae didn't jump. Instead, he turned to Jungkook, begging him to read his facial expression.

"Sorry..." Jungkook bowed to the instructor and walked over to Tae. "Come on, Tae, you know you can do it. Just close your eyes and jump."

"You know I'm still scared of heights, Kookie." he cried.

"How about we go together?" Jungkook compromised.

"She said we can't do that, though."

"I don't have to tell her, do I?" he whispered.

"Ok, fine. If you do it, I will." They agreed on that. Jungkook called the instructor back and she started questioning why Jungkook was standing next to Tae. He managed to shut her up without raising suspicion.

"Sam, i, il," the lady started again. "GO!" Both boys leaned forward, hesitating for a few seconds. As Tae jumped, Jungkook unbent his knees, but did not leave the platform. A nanosecond later, Tae was in the air, screaming with joy. Jungkook was giddy, giggling up on the platform as he watched Tae soar through the evening air.

"JEON JUNGKOOK!" he heard a few seconds later. He wasn't scared and he didn't feel bad, he just laughed some more. 

"You can yell at me later, hyung! Let me jump first!" he yelled back down. Silence followed as the lady once again followed the same steps taken with Tae to hook Jungkook up to the structure.

"Sam, i, il, go!" she yelled again. Before Jungkook jumped, he yelled something into the air that he knew Tae would hear.

"KIM TAEHYUNG, BANGTAN SONYEONDAN, HWAITING!" And with that, he jumped off the platform, cheers filling the air. It took him about 15 seconds to stop bouncing and for the people who worked there to come in a boat and collect him. Once he saw Taehyung on land, they clasped hands and hugged each other.

"Jeon Jungkook, you rascal," Tae joked, smiling.

"What?! You jumped, right? So my job is done," Jungkook defended. 

"Did you hear what I yelled up there?" he asked.

"Yeah I did." Tae confessed. "Jeon Jungkook, hwaiting!" he followed.

"Kim Taehyung, hwaiting!" With that last warm message and the sun to set soon, they followed each other, goofing around, back to the car. It had been a fun-filled, energetic day, but the two tired boys were off to their hotel to sleep.


	8. A Fool Because of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook want to practice dance, but Jungkook breaks down in front of Tae.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I haven't been posting much, but I write the chapters much earlier than I post them. For example, at this point, I have 11 chapters ready, but 7 (now 8) posted, so I'm very very sorry. I'm trying to make them longer and more enjoyable by improving my style of writing. I hope you guys are enjoying it! Thanks for reading!

It had been a fun, tiring day in the park. They had bungee jumped and ziplined, but finally, the day came to an end. Jungkook fell asleep on the car ride home, even though his mom always told him he couldn't sleep if he did this late at night. He slept often from the ride home from practices, physically and mentally tired from the exhausting dances that they had to perfectly execute before their next show. 

Once they got back to the hotel, it was already very late. Jungkook flashed his phone on and turned down the brightness all the way. The digital clock read 11:49 PM. They entered the hotel, looking like zombies to anyone who looked their direction. As they entered the hotel room, Tae immediately headed to the shower. He tried to do it as quick as possible, but soon enjoyed the warm water a little too much.

"Tae! Can you hurry up a little?" Jungkook asked as politely as he could. The response from Tae was a grunt of agreement. After another 5 minutes, he turned off the hot water and went outside to change. Jungkook was waiting, listening to some of IU's songs before he took a shower. As soon as Tae got his shorts on, he climbed into the bed and had no trouble sleeping whatsoever, even with the lights on. Jungkook chuckled, turning the lights off as he walked to the shower. He, like Tae, enjoyed the warm water as well, savoring it just a little longer since there was nobody else there to shower after him. Soon, he turned off the hot water and slumped outside, also changing into a tank top and baggy shorts. He also climbed into bed, but unlike Tae, he couldn't sleep. Something was on his mind. Turning towards Tae, he studied how he slept very carefully. He had one arm under his head, legs curled, eyes closed. He was breathing very softly. He looked so delicate, so precious.

"Sarangiran apeugo, apeun got, yeah~. Ibyeoriran apeugo deo apeungo gatae. Niga eopseumyeon nan andwae geot gata, saranghaejwo, saranghaejeo, dasi nae pumeuro wajwo..." he started to softly sing at Tae. It was now 12:26 AM, the next day. _Ah, ottoke... Tae you drive me insane. I can't even distract myself when I'm with you here in Daegu. Do you want to hurt me that badly?_ he thought to himself. He tossed and turned for 2 hours before he came to his senses.

Getting out of bed, he quietly crept across the room and changed from shorts to sweatpants. The hotel had a gymnasium, so he planned to go down there and dance. It should still be open. Dancing was the only think that could get him tired enough to sleep. Plus, it got his mind off of a lot of things, especially now when he can't stop thinking about Tae. When he finally got to the open floor gym, he hooked his phone up the speakers, turning it down to make sure nobody but him could hear the music. At this time, everyone was already asleep, so he was alone, but he was fine with that. He played a couple songs with just instruments in them to stretch out in case he hurts himself. After about 10 minutes, he started to dance to a random shuffle on his phone full of girl groups, their songs, and boy group songs. Starting off easy with SNSD's Lion Heart and Girls' Day Something, he warmed up his body a little and loosened it up. After those two songs, some boy groups songs like Warrior and Overdose came on and his body got more of a workout. Sweating heavily, his own songs came on, but they weren't easy at all. He was continuously moving and after relaxation, this was a joy. He loved dancing and singing and though he didn't have a microphone in his hand, he loved the feeling of sweat dripping from his hair and the burning feeling in his legs after a long time of dancing. He missed it, actually. He continued to think about his members and where the other members would be in that particular song. He smiled just thinking about it. The music blasted eternally and he never wanted it to end.

Meanwhile in the room....

Tae woke up at about 3:15 AM and saw the bathroom light on, as Jungkook forgot to turn it off. He looked around, wondering where Jungkook was. He jerked up, now confused and afraid. He swung his feet over the edge of the bed and started to wander around, still looking for his friend. A lightbulb suddenly went off in his head.

 _"Don't you miss dancing, hyung? The feeling of being on stage and performing for those we love?"_ he remembered Jungkook asking in the car ride back. He realized that he was probably dancing downstairs. Changing into sweats and a tank like Jungkook did, he planned to join him. He wasn't really tired, as the thought of Jungkook not being there scared the crap out of him.

When he got right outside the gym, he could already hear the music blasting.  He opened the door...

____________________________________________________________________________________

After about an hour of dancing, Jungkook saw the door open in the mirror. He jumped, surprised and confused as to why someone would be up at this time. The person entered, wearing clothes like his. He realized that it was Tae. Jogging over to his phone, he shut the music off.

"Hey..." Jungkook said, panting.

"Hey... What're you doing down here?"

"I could as you the same thing," Jungkook fired back playfully.

"Well, I knew you wanted to dance, but come on, Kookie... It's 3 am."

"I couldn't sleep," he explained.

"Well, you could've listen to music or something.."

"Dancing works best for me. So what're you doing here?"

"Joining you!" Tae stated, smiling his box smile.

"Aren't you tired?"

"No, not really. I kinda got scared when I didn't see you anywhere, so I'm wide awake." Jungkook stood there, nodding his head. Jogging over to Jungkook's iPhone, Tae picked a song. He picked their song, Baepsae.

"Why this song?" Jungkook quickly shouted before the dance started.

"Because it's fun! Loosen up!" he shouted back.

**They call me baepsae!**

**yokbwati! i sedae!**

**ppali! Chase 'em!**

**hwangsae doege nae garingan taengtaeng!**

They started sillily dancing to the music, smiling goofily and creating eye contact here and there. They thrusted their hips and moved their feet quickly along with hand gestured that made sense for the dance. They hadn't practiced this dance in a while, as the last time the band practiced, Jungkook skipped out to talk to Tae. The dance itself wasn't that hard, but it was definitely tiring. They tried their hardest even though nobody was watching. When the song ended, they were sweating like crazy, hunched over their knees. Suddenly, both boys started to laugh insanely, falling on the floor. They looked up at the ceiling, side by side.

"Hyung.." Jungkook started.

"Ne?" Silence.

"Nothing."

"No, what is it?" Tae pushed.

"Never mind. It's nothing." Jungkook insisted. Right, nothing. _I'm just slowly falling for you over and over again. Nothing to worry about, right?_

"Jungkook..." Tae said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever think about what life would be like if we could date?"

"Well, of course I do. But I think making music, pursuing our dreams, that comes first."

"I know, but don't you wish you could feel loved again? We barely see our family anymore because of our schedules.. I don't know. It's just hard, Jungkook. You should know.. You're only 19.." Tae confessed.

"I know, Tae." His voice started to break. Tae looked over at him. There were clearly tears in his eyes. "We could be riding a road to a dead end right now but that's not going to stop us from doing anything. We love what we do. We don't know what's ahead, but we have to do it together." Neither of them said anything after that, afraid to break the moment. Jungkook got up and went to turn off the music, which was now playing I Need U.

"Wait, Jungkook."

"What, hyung?"

"Let's dance to this song."

"You know, this song breaks my heart."

"Why?"

"Because we had to perform it without you and Yoongi-hyung. I was practically crying during the performance and so was Seokjin-hyung. I was dancing alone on one side of J-hope without you and Yoongi-hyung," he explained, his head down.

"I know. I'm sorry you guys had to perform that without us, but you have to move on from that. It was a fond memory for you, I know. But I'm all good now. Let's dance, Jungkook. For me." He grabbed Jungkook's hand and led him to the middle of the floor as the chorus started to play. They got in the positions they would usually be in with the entire band there, but it was just with the two of them. They danced along to the music and tears started to form in Jungkook's eyes, certainly from the memory of performing without Suga and Tae.

At the end of the song, Jungkook was on the floor, crying and exhausted. Tae didn't say anything. Instead, he went over to Jungkook, embracing him in a hug.

"It'll be okay, I promise."

"I don't want to go through that again, Tae. I know Namjoon-hyung and Hobie-hyung and Jimin-hyung had it harder than me. I know they were closer to Yoongi-hyung and you than I was, but dancing alone... It brought me to realize how close we've gotten since we've started. What if this _was_ all for nothing? What if we _are_ going towards a dead end right now?" Jungkook asked, afraid all of the sudden.

"Then we'll do it together." Tae told him, both hands on his shoulders now.

"Promise me that you'll be well. Eat 3 meals a day, practice when you need to, but don't over practice. Please. I can't perform without a member again. We're meant to be 7, not any number smaller than that nor any number bigger."

"I promise, Jungkook. I promise. Let's go upstairs and go to sleep."

"You go, hyung. I'm gonna dance a bit more. I'm still not exactly tired." Tae agreed reluctantly and left the gym. Jungkook walked back over to his phone and sat down, taking in what just happened in the past 5 minutes. He turned on the music and to cool down, he did some freestyling and some girl group dances. By the time he left the gym, it was 4:26 AM and Tae was already back in his bed and asleep. He took a shower and changed into a different tank top and shorts.

 _What's up for us tomorrow?_ he wondered in bed. _It doesn't matter I guess. As long as it's with you, Tae._ Half an hour later, he fell asleep listening to Ailee's I'll Show you and believed that the song was for them, both with his relationship with Tae and about BTS rising to the top of the music industry. _I'll show them. I'll show them that we're stronger than that. We're better than that. I'll show them that I can be Jungkook the Maknae and Jeon Jungkook._ At that point he knew for sure that he was falling in love.


	9. Crazy Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook want to go sightseeing, but there's somewhere else Tae wants to go instead..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Leave some comments and tell me how I'm doing. I really, really appreciate the feedback. It helps me as a writer and hopefully, you guys can enjoy the story more! Thanks!

Jungkook and Tae had absolutely nothing planned for the next day. Seeing as they were physically exhausted from dancing the night before, they woke up later in the day and took their sweet time getting ready. They carefully picked out their clothes and sat watching TV for half an hour before they picked up the phone and called for room service. They didn't feel like eating secretly behind masks, so they decided to just eat in their room.

"Hello?" Tae said, trying to make Jungkook laugh with his facial expression as he mocked the person on the other side of the phone. He soon got a chuckle from his friend, which soon turned into uncontrollable laughter and Tae trying to shush him so he wouldn't be told off. "Ne, I'd like to order breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, noodles, and rice please. Yes, room 217. Ok. Thank you." He put the phone back. A moment of quiet passed before the room was filled with laughter.

"What the hell, Tae?" Jungkook said between laughs.

"Whaaattttt?" Tae asked, pretending to be clueless. They were rolling on the beds laughing like crazy before they calmed down and sat quietly, looking at the ceiling.

"Ah... Good times, Tae," Jungkook said.

"Should we put on some of our songs and just fool around?" Tae acknowledged. They reached their iPhones and debated on what song to play.

"Baepsae, Lion Heart, I Need U, Warrior, Overdose.." Jungkook thought aloud. Soon, one of them pressed a song, and a loud tune started to play.

It was EXO's newest song, Sing For You. The instrumental part started in the beginning and Tae started singing as soon as D.O did.

"Nae nargeun gitareul deuro haji mothan gobaegeul, hogeun gojipseuresamkin iyagireul." He got up from the bed, walking carefully towards Jungkook, singing romantically.

"Norae hanamandeun cheok jigeom malharyeo haeyo. Geunyang deuroyo I'll sing for you." He grabbed his hand and pulled him up from the bed, a smiling Jungkook following his steps.

"neomu saranghajiman saranghanda mal an hae eosaekhae jajonsim heorak an hae. oneureun yonggi naeseo na malhal tejiman. musimhi deureoyo I'll sing for you~." They two danced around the room, holding each other tightly.

"The way you cry~ The way you smile~. Naege eolmana keun uimiin geolkka? hagopeun mal, nohchyeobeorin mal. Gobaekhal tejiman geunyang deureoyo I'll sing for you, sing for you~" They hugged silently.

"I'll sing for you, Jungkook. I'll always sing for you."

"I'l sing for you too, Tae." At that moment, they heard a knock at the door. Not bothering to turn the music off, they grabbed the door, thanking the man and paying him as they bowed and closed the door.

"FOOD IS HERE!" Tae yelled. They hopped on the bed, each with their own serving of food. Their attention was diverted back to the TV and they watched as they ate.

Once they were done eating, they continued to watch TV. A music station played a live show of them performing I Need U.

"Ah I remember that performance," Tae recalled.

"I was nervous," Jungkook confessed.

"Why?"

"Because it was our first ever performance of I Need U. I was afraid I was going to mess up."

"Aren't you always afraid?"

"Can you honestly tell me that you're not nervous?"

"Of course I am, but will A.R.M.Y really care?"

"Remember when Rap Mon messed up at the concert in New York?"

"Yeah, he went the other way." They burst into laughter.

"I was trying so hard not to laugh. Oh my god, I was like 'no Taehyung, don't laugh. You're performing in New York for a big crowd, don't laugh, you have a mic on,'" He confessed, laughing.

"Yeah. I could've messed up big time. It's bad for I Need U because it's so easy to spot it if one of us messes up."

"I guess so. But that's what we're known for, right? Our amazing dance moves."

"Yeah." As they finished up watching themselves and laughing at how little they were confident about the choreography, they started to pack up to go to explore more of Daegu. Once they got everything ready, they were out the door.

"Hey, Jungkook?" Tae asked as he started the car.

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind... actually never mind. It's not a good idea."

"No, what?" Jungkook pushed on.

"I was wondering maybe if you would mind if I go visit my family. You know, my family misses me and I kinda miss them. It was a stupid thought. Never mind."

"No, no, we can go. We _should_ go. It's so sad how we can barely see our family anymore. If you have the chance, take it. Let's go, come on."

"Ok... Thanks. I know we were suppose to go look at Daegu and the sights today.. So I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Step on it. We can go eat lunch with them." And so started the hour long drive over to Tae's old house where he used to live with his parents, younger brother, and younger sister. Once they got there, they parked outside the house where nobody could see. They had picked up a cake since it was a rare occasion and they lit the candles as they knocked on the door. Someone came running and opened it, formally greeting them before they realized who it was.

"Annyeongh-......" they stopped. It was Tae's mother who opened the door. "Taehyung-ssi!" she cried out. They embraced each other in a tight hug, holding each other for what felt like forever.

"Come in, come in!" Tae took the cake from Jungkook as he also hugged Tae's family. "Oh Jungkook-ssi! Hello! Hello! What brings you guys here today?" They took off their shoes inside.

"We're on a company thing here in Daegu so we thought we'd come visit." Jungkook said.

"Ah! Well, how long can you stay?" As they set the cake on the table, Tae went over to the living room where he remembered he used to watch TV. His younger siblings saw him and came running.

"Until a couple hours after lunch," Jungkook responded for Tae as his mother nodded.

"Hyung!" his brother shouted.

"Oppa!" his sister yelled. They hugged him around the waist and leg, as they were still reasonably small.

"Hey! What's up! How are my two favorite people in the world doing?" he started, a tear running down his face.

"Oppa... why are you crying? Aren't you happy to see us?"

"Of course I am. It's just, I haven't seen this house in a while. Your oppa has a lot of memories here, but he's busy with his job."

"Hyung..." his brother started. Tae looked at him, curiosity in his eyes. "Isn't that Jungkook-ssi from BTS?" he asked, starting to get a little excited.

"Yeah! He came here to Daegu with me. Him and I work very closely together." he explained. Jungkook stood and waved as the boy went to hug him.

"You're my favorite member from the band! Golden Maknae, right?" he asked excitedly.

"Yeah, Golden Maknae." Jungkook chuckled.

"Aren't I your favorite member?" Tae asked, faking sadness.

"Oh, yeah absolutely. Sorry, hyung." he said suddenly.

"It's ok! Your big brother is so happy to see you guys. It's been forever."

"I call sitting next to Jungkook-hyung during lunch~!" the little boy called.

"TaeTae.. Can I sit next to you like old times?" his little sister asked. Tae nodded his head and pulled her in for a tight hug.

"Lunch!" his mother called. They ate a big meal, including kimbap, ddeokbokki, jangjamyun, and regular sushi that his mother knew how to cook. His father came in right after they started eating to join them.

"Is that really...?" he said as he saw Tae. The son stood up and walked over to his dad.

"Appa... it's so good to see you again." Tae said.

"Ne... I missed you, Tae."

"I missed you too, dad..." The two men were allowed to hug for a couple seconds before being interrupted.

"Let's eat first, shall we?" his mother said. They sat down and started chowing down on the food. After an hour of eating and talking, they were finally done. Tae and his siblings were playing Korean hand games that they learned when they were a child. Jungkook went outside where they kept the cake to defrost. He came in and turned off the lights before starting to sing in the tune of happy birthday.

"Jalwatsseo, Taehyung! Jalwatsseo, Taehyung! Jalwatsseo, Kim Taehyung! Jalwatsseo, Taehyung!" Everyone started to cheer and the lights flickered back on. Once again, Tae cried as everyone took part of the cake and smushed it on his face as if it was actually his birthday. Tae stood up, starting the speech he'd probably prepared a long time ago.

"It's so... so nice to see all of you again. As you know, I've been promoting our knew songs all over Korea, so my schedules have been busy. To be honest..." Tae looked at Jungkook. He shook his head violently. "We were here on a special promoting trip as two visuals," he lied. "They're back at the hotel, but we finished promotions early, so they let us come here. Thank you. For everything. Not only this time, but my entire life. You guys have always been there and I'll always be so grateful for that. I didn't think I'd only be able to see my family every couple of years, so I'm sorry for that." He started tearing up. "I love you guys," he held back a sob at the end. Everyone got up from the table and went to hug him, even Jungkook who ended up giving him a back hug.

"It's ok, TaeTae," his little sister said. "We may only see you in person every couple of years, but we'll never forget who you are. We'll always watch every show and who knows, maybe we'll get tickets to your upcoming Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa concert. We'll always be the proud family of Kim Taehyung, V of BTS." His family let go of him and sat back down to eat the cake, which they claimed as delicious.

Tae and his siblings went up to their room along with Jungkook, who came to play with the cuties. They were playing a fake martial arts game, hitting each other lightly and stabbing each other with fake knives. Jungkook watched for a moment and realized that Tae was much happier here. He didn't want to say anything since it might trigger a memory for Tae. Jungkook was grateful that the scars had all faded by now. Plus, it was cold so he was wearing long sleeves, so his younger siblings couldn't ask what happened since they couldn't see. He didn't know how Tae would explain it. He left him and his siblings to play as he went downstairs and helped Tae's mom out with dishes.

"Aish, gwaenchana, Jungkook-ssi. Go play with the children!" his mom tried to deny. Jungkook just shook his head.

"They're playing their game of fake martial arts. I'll go if I feel someone will get hurt," he said as he grabbed the dishes and started to lazily clean them before dumping them in the dishwasher.

"Thank you, Jungkook-ssi. You're such a good boy. Speaking of which, how is Taehyung holding up in BTS?"

"He's doing real good. It's definitely exhausting, but it's a lot of fun."

"Has his health been well?" she asked, clearly concerned.

"Well, he's been eating a whole bunch and so has our eldest, Seokjin-hyung. But he's recently been staying up late to practice hard choreography and make sure everything is right and stuff."

"How late?"

"Until 2 or 3 AM."

"Aish... Taehyung-ssi."

"It's ok, I make sure he's safe getting home and hydrated since I stay up to watch him and join in. Most of BTS has been staying up until early the next day to practice. We only end up getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep, but that's ok since the next day, we sleep whenever we can between shows or something," he explained.

"That's good, that's good. Just please make sure that Taehyung-ssi is getting everything he needs to be getting."

"Ne, Mrs. Kim," he said politely. They finished up the dishes and he went upstairs after she thanked him for the hundredth time. Tae was now teaching the I Need U chorus dance to the younger children, who were learning it quicker than Jungkook would expect.

"Oh! Jungkook! Come help me!" Tae, who was sweating hard, said as soon as he saw Jungkook.

"Wait, what?" he asked, confused.

"Teach them the dance to I Need U!" 

"Ok.. I'll show you guys first, ok?"

"Ne!" they agreed.

"Jungkook-ssi is going to dance for us! Yay!" Tae started the chorus part over in the song and the Jungkook danced to it as he did in practice. Once it finished, he showed the younger ones step by step how to do it and they copied his moves, engraving the dance into their heads. Tae put on the chorus again and let the children dance to it and they did it almost as perfectly as Jungkook, just cuter.

Before they knew it, nightfall came and they wanted to get back to the hotel before 6 to practice some more dancing before they went to bed. Tae sadly said goodbye to his family, crying as he promised them that he would come back soon. His siblings hugged him and cried a little while his mom and dad said goodbye, trying to hold back tears in front of their beloved son. They got into the car, still waving as they pulled out of the driveway. Tae had to wipe his eyes in order to see the road properly. 

"It's ok, Tae. I'm sorry. We'll see them again before we have to go back, ok?" Jungkook promised, rubbing circles on Tae's back. All the older boy did was nod and smile.

Once they got back to the hotel, they immediately went to the gym, especially because Tae needed to get a lot off his mind. They had called in the car, or Jungkook had, and they reserved the gym just for them, making sure that nobody would interrupt them. They warmed up and stretched out, just like they had done the night before. They started to dance more intensely after about 10 minutes. When they decided that they had enough of a workout at around 10 PM, they went to shower and ordered room service again. They wanted something grilled, so they order a hamburger for each of them along with some fries and a soda, the typical American way.

They tried to share some childhood memories while they ate, just so neither of them would be sad while they ate and they didn't have to spend the night depressed. They laughed once again as they tae their burgers, mocking how stupid they were as children. They enjoyed their meals by eating slower than usual and savoring each other's company. 

It was about 11:30 PM when they finished eating and showering. They decided to check on the V App and Twitter to see what the rest of BTS was doing. Apparently, they were hanging out in the practice room a lot. They had posted a video of Jimin doing a really weird dance, which Tae and Jungkook watched together. Jungkook finally shut his phone off and both boys climbed into bed, exhausted.

"Jungkook-ah.." Tae said in a room that was filled with silence.

"Ne, hyung?"

"Thank you for coming to see my family with me. It meant a lot."

"No problem. I would do anything to see my family again."

"Maybe we'll go to Busan one day to see them," Tae said, giving him hope and ending the day on a high note.

"Yeah, maybe we will. Good night, TaeTae."

"Good night, Kookie."


	10. BigHit Exclusive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What are the other 5 members doing back in Seoul?

While Tae and Jungkook were off to Daegu, the other members were still working hard over in Seoul.

One night at 10 PM, Jimin was in the dance studio, still trying to get the choreography right. Everyone else went home, except J-hope apparently. He was the only other boy in the band that knew about V and Jungkook going off to Daegu. After they had left, since Jimin trusted him not to tell the hyungs, he told J-hope right away,

"Hey... What're you still doing here?" a panting Jimin said.

"I could ask you the same thing," the older boy said back, dropping his bag.

"I'm just trying to get some moves right."

"You're Jimin. You never get moves wrong." J-hope pointed out.

"Just stuff on my mind," Jimin said, thinking about what Jungkook and Taehyung were doing right now.

"Like what?" Jimin froze, debating what he should say.

"What if they aren't working?" He decided to say.

"Well, what do you mean?"

"What if they're just there to have fun?" Jimin subtlety hinted.

"Well, do you really want to know?" Hoseok seemed like he had a plan and Jimin nodded his head.

"Yeah.."

"Then let's call them!" He bent down and opened his back quickly, pulling out his white Android. He swiped up and entered the password as he went to his contact and clicked on TaeTae to call them. Jimin walked over to him, bringing his water too. He was drinking it when Tae picked up.

"Yoboseo?" he heard the voice say tiredly.

"Hey, it's Hoseok-hyung!"

"Mm, hi hyung." He sounded tired.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Well, we practiced some dancing for a couple hours, but we went out to promote before this."

"Did you have fun? What did you do in Daegu?"

"You know, we walked around a little. Saw a freaking bulletin board with our picture on it. It was from Danger, but still, dude."

"Really?!" Jimin was suddenly intrigued.

"Yeah. It was in the center of Daegu, too. We had some time after promotions, so we walked to the center. There were people dancing covers and blasting music," he explained the scenery.

"That's so awesome..." Hoseok was practically speechless.

"So how are you guys?" The two boys heard shifting on the other side, which was Tae sitting up on his bed in the hotel.

"We're good. You know, sharpening up some dance skills."

"Not asleep yet?" There was some concern in his voice.

"No, but it's ok. It's honestly not even that late," Jimin told him.

"Ah.. Do you guys want to talk to Jungkook?" Tae asked.

"Is he awake?"

"No, he's asleep. He danced a lot more than I did, so he's exhausted."

"Oh, ok. No, it's ok then. Let him sleep."

"Ok, well hyung..."

"Yeah?" Hoseok and Jimin said together.

"I think I might go to bed soon. I'm kind of tired."

"Ah, ok, ok. I'll leave you be then. Taehyung, Jungkook, hwaiting!

"Hoseok, Jimin hwaiting! Jal jalga," the younger boy said quietly.

"Annyeong!" Hoseok said as he hung up. Hoseok looked at Jimin, comforting him with just his eyes. He got up and went to the iPod.

"What're you doing?"

"Dancing." Jimin said simply, scrolling through the songs.

"Why?" the older boy asked as Tomorrow started playing.

"Because I need to."

"Then I'll join you." Hoseok put his phone down and joined Jimin on the dance floor. He stretched for Suga's part of Tomorrow, but when V's part came on, he started dancing. Both lead dancers danced as if they were actually at a concert. They replayed the body roll part over and over again, as the footwork and body movement at that part is the hardest in the entire song. Jimin stopped the music and repeated the move over and over and over again, making sure that his foot and hands were in the right place.

"Jimin-ah!" Hoseok interrupted his train of thought and his practicing.

"What?" Jimin replied, not looking at him.

"It's late. You should go to sleep."

"Look, hyung, I'm touched that you're worried about me," he started. "But this is my way of getting things off my mind. I know that Jungkook and Taehyung aren't fooling around and I'm relieved, but I'm just a little stressed and I can release some stress this way. I'm not even tired yet, I'll leave later."

"Ok, well, I'll stay too, in that case," Hoseok said.

"No, you go home. You have no reason to be here. Go sleep," Jimin said sympathetically. Hoseok reluctantly agreed after a while, packing up his stuff and saying one more goodbye to his dongsaeng. Jimin turned the music back on and practiced Tomorrow multiple times as long as a load of their other songs.

Jimin was the type of person to make sure everything was in place and that he learned the dance quickly and properly. He was one of the role models for their team in terms of dance, along with Hoseok. Both boys could move their bodies extremely well and with enormous caution and control. Namjoon and Jin would stay with them after practice sometimes to have a couple lessons. He enjoys dancing a whole lot, but he just couldn't feel it today. He tried to put on some instrumental break-downs and freestyle it out and he enjoyed himself a lot more, but he just couldn't feel the electric shock he usually feels when he dances. He decided to go home and get some rest before hours and hours of practice tomorrow.

Walking back to their extremely empty dorm, he saw a missed call from Taehyung. Although he hated the fact that he couldn't count on them to do what they needed to, he couldn't be mad at his best friend, who was also a 95'er. He decided to call him back.

_Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Ring, ri-_

"Jimin-hyung?" He suddenly sounded awake.

"Yeah, why did you call?"

"Just wanted to know how you were doing. i know you called a little while ago, but you didn't say much. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. "What about you? How's Daegu?"

"Um..." he stopped.

"Wait, what?" Jimin asked, concerned.

"I know that you're my best friend and everything, so I can't hide this from you.."

"What are you talking about, Taehyung?"

"I saw my parents today..." he confessed. Jimin went silent. "I was originally not going to tell anyone, but it would be wrong to keep it from you."

"Tae.."

"I know, I know, I know. But I'm in Daegu and my parents are so close. I couldn't help it."

"How did it go?" Jimin asked quietly.

"You're not mad at me?"

"You got to see your family. Why should I be mad?" Jimin said, showing sadness through his voice.

"They were happy to see me. They were...I don't know. Forget it. How are you?"

"I'm fine." Nobody spoke.

"And...?" Taehyung wanted to hear more.

"And Hoseok and I are staying up late to practice dancing. We're still practicing for like, 16 hours a day over here."

"Yeah, I know. Look, Jimin, I'm sorry I'm not there with you. But don't blame Jungkook."

"He told you, huh? Rascal."

"He had a right to, and you had no right to scold him. You were busy but if you weren't, you would be in his place right now. Would you like Jungkook to call you up and yell at you?"

"He's my dongsaeng, he can't," Jimin said coldly.

"It doesn't matter what age you guys are-it's wrong," Taehyung said, raising his voice.

"Taehyung, it's wrong that you're not here, practicing and promoting here in Seoul."

"I'm still in South Korea, so does it really make a difference, Jimin?" Tae was getting impatient and quite angry.

"When are you coming back?"

"Just another week, ok?" Taehyung said, calming down.

"Fine. Just finish your promotions and get back home, quickly."

"Yeah. Jimin, hwaiting."

"Taehyung, Jungkook, hwaiting." They hung up and left each other to their own devices. He was mad at Taehyung, yeah, but he couldn't stay mad at him forever. After all, they are 95'ers. Gotta stick together, right? When he got back to the dorm, he unlocked the door, careful not to wake any of the other members up. He showered quickly and flopped on his comfortable bed before closing his eyes and falling asleep at around 1 AM.

The next morning...

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, be-

Jimin rolled to the side of the bed, shutting off his alarm clock so he doesn't go insane because of it's annoying noises. He opened his eyes slowly, looking at the time.

"Aish... 4 AM..." He needed to get up to meet their team in the dance studio to plan some things, but he wanted to get in some dancing before that. Slowly, he got up and showered, changing into comfortable clothes. He walked himself over to the building where the dance studio was and since he had the key, he unlocked it and turned some lights on. As expected, nobody was in there. Some of the PD-nims were working on songs in some of the private rooms. He greeted them politely and apologized before going out to dance. Once again, he worked on all of the songs that they had, but also danced so some harder songs, such as SHINee's View.

Once it was 6 AM, the members slowly started to arrive at the building to find Jimin still dancing. He was now freestyling and the first person to see was Yoongi. Jimin was so into his own dance that he didn't even notice his hyung come in.

"How long have you been here?" Jimin turned around alarmed. Jogging to turn off the blaring music, he answered Yoongi's question.

"I don't know. 4:30 AM?" he replied, panting.

"Why were you here for so long?" the elder asked, a little bit worried.

"I was stressed out and wanted to get some stuff off of my mind."

"Wanna talk about it, kid?"

"No, hyung, it's ok. I always dance," he explained.

"I know you like dancing, Jimin, but dancing at 4:30 AM? How is that good for your body?"

"I'm fine, hyung. Really, I can handle it."

"When did you go to sleep last night?"

"I don't know, 1 AM?" he said cautiously.

"Jimin! You got 3 hours of sleep?!" Yoongi yelled.

"Calm down, hyung, I'm fine."

"Jimin, sit down." Yoongi walked over and sat down with his back leaning against the wall. Jimin followed, sitting right next to him. "I know I complain a lot about how tired I am, but at least I get 5 or 6 hours a night of sleep."

"I'm really ok. Hoseok watched me last night and he saw that I was just dancing to get things off my mind."

"What's on your mind that makes you want to dance at 4 in the morning?" Yoongi questioned.

"Just drop it please. It's stuff that you and Seokjin-hyung and Namjoon-hyung just wouldn't understand," he said, head down.

"Jimin, look at me." No reaction from the younger boy came. He continued to look at the floor. Yoongi quickly grabbed his shoulders, facing the boy towards him and forcing eye contact. "Nobody-nothing-should be making you stay up late or wake up early because of stress, ok? More importantly, you should not be physically tiring out your body this early in the morning. It's dangerous for your health. Taehyung-ssi and Jungkook-ssi are already off in Daegu. We can't lose you, too. Not now. Not ever. Do you get me?" Jimin could hear the seriousness in the older boy's voice. He nodded shyly. Yoongi harshly let go of Jimin, throwing him back a little because of the force.

"Hyung, thanks for worrying so much, but seriously I'm fi-" He stopped mid-sentence. His eyes unfocused and things around him started turning blurry.

"Jimin?" Yoongi was worried.

"I'm fine...." his voice trailed off as everything around him went black and he fell to the floor.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jimin soon woke up to soft mumbling and a bunch of people swarmed around him. He felt something cold on his forehead and reached to take it off. He sat up and recognized the back of some heads as his members. They turned around.

"Jimin-ssi!" Namjoon said. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He looked around.

"Where's Yoongi-hyung?" Jimin couldn't see him in the room.

"He left to go get food and some drinks for us. He also said he couldn't stand seeing you like this and gave an excuse to leave." Jimin felt his face heat up with embarrassment and shame.

"I'm sorry, guys." A tear ran down his cheek.

"It's ok. It's not really your fault." Jin ensured, patting Jimin's back.

"You up for some more practicing today?" Hoseok asked.

"Yeah, I'll do-"

"No, you're not doing anything else today." It was Yoongi with the food and some bubble tea.

"Yoongi-hyung," Jimin stood up.

"I'm not allowing you to dance today, Jimin," he said protectively.

"Why not?"

"Because you freaking passed out! Do you know how long you've been out for? Huh?" he screamed.

"Yoongi, calm down," Jin advised.

"Wait," Jimin interrupted. "How long was I out?"

"3 and a half hours, Jimin," Hoseok answered. Jimin stumbled back, shocked. He had never passed out from too much physical exercise. He always danced that early in the morning, but he never danced that hard in the morning.

"Yoongi-hyung, I'm sorry..." Jimin apologized.

"Yeah, sure. Just... don't do it again and rest for the day. We were only gonna practice for a couple hours anyways, run through some new songs a couple times and call it a day," he explained.

"Ok... I'll sit out for today."

"And drink water!" Namjoon said. "It helps, especially since you passed out. It may have been because of dehydration." Jimin then remembered that he had barely drank anything while he danced today.

"Yeah, ok. Got it, hyung. Oh and guys.." The four of them turned around and looked at the youngest one there at the time. "Thanks for looking out for me."

"No problem, Jimin. You would do the same for us." Hoseok said.

"Yeah, I would." They sat down together and ate while talking about promoting ideas. They planned to have many concerts this year, maybe even traveling around the globe to perform for international fans. Once they finished, they checked the Twitter feed. Yoongi had recently posted multiple selcas of himself on the feed and more than 1 million fans replied. They scrolled through them together as Yoongi boasted about how popular he was. They checked V App to see what other idols were up to and posted a short video of them explaining that they were about to start dance practice. They had to make sure that Jimin could not be seen and they ended up just fooling around for the video. They didn't want to practice the songs and show the fans because they would be upset that the maknae line wasn't there. The 3 hyungs decided to try and freestyle as J-hope sat in front of the camera, laughing at them.

"Ya! Hope on the street! Come here and dance for us!" Namjoon called. J-hope got up and popped to multiple songs, showing his flexibility and capability of controlling his body.

"Go J-hope! Go J-hope! Go J-hope!" the members cheered in the back. The comments were flying and the video now has 40,000,000 hearts. Once they finished, they said goodbye to the fans in as many languages as they could and turned off the livestream. When they knew that they were off, they got into place and danced to each of their songs, including Adult Child. Jimin sat in front of them, advising them to put their foot there and make sure their hand is there while drinking the bubble tea Yoongi bought for them. Practice ended at around 4 PM, which wasn't that bad compared to their 16 hour usual dance schedule.

"Yay! Good job! You guys got almost every single move right!" he clapped. They bowed to ther choreographer, who was also there, and thanks them for their hard work and for being there. He left and the members sat down to get some water and chat.

"So, what do you think Jungkook and Tae are doing right now?" Yoongi asked, out of breath.

"I don't know. Dancing like us?" Jin joked.

"Actually, we called them earlier since Jimin and I were curious and they said they actually were practicing dancing," Hoseok explained.

"Oh, I wonder how many hours they're putting into that."

"Taehyung sounded pretty tired when he picked up, so it had to be at least 2 hours," Jimin reasoned.

"Wow..." Namjoon exclaimed. "They're there practically on break, but they're still working hard."

"Yeah.." the others agreed. They chatted about more ideas of where they wanted to go that year for promotions and talked about how they wanted to set up concerts and things like that. They soon left to go back to their dorms together and Jin cooked dinner for them as they roamed YouTube to watch other groups perform. Within an hour, Jin was done cooking. He had made rice, mushrooms, a vegetable dish, and a meat platter. They sat down on the floor and ate together, which triggered a soft spot in them for Jungkook and Taehyung, as they missed eating with this even though it had only been a week. Even though they were a little sad, they joked around and laughed while eating. Namjoon almost broke the lamp behind him and Hoseok almost choked on his water, but it was all ok in the end. They had played hand games and card games until 10 PM, when they washed dishes and cleaned up. They played rock paper scissors to determine who could shower first. Of course, the winner of all rock paper scissors challenges, Jin won. Next was Jimin, then Hoseok, then Yoongi and Namjoon last. While one was in the shower, they continued to play games outside until all of them had changed into their night clothes.

"Hey guys?" Jimin said at around 11:30 PM.

"Yeah?" they responded.

"Do you think we should go to sleep yet?"

"How about you go, Jimin-ssi?" Jin offered. "You're probably extremely tired from today. I'll make sure that we're not too loud and nobody disturbs you."

"Ok... Good night guys. Thank you again for today," he left the room as the members said goodnight. As he climbed into bed, he thought back on the entire day and how fun it was , even if it was a little scary. It felt like weeks since he had smiled properly. Being mad at Jungkook and Tae had completely overtaken him and he didn't even realize what he had here anymore. He loved his members, even if Jungkook and Taehyung weren't there with them. He wished they could come home soon, but they had a schedule and he respected that. He started to sing softly to himself about the two younger members.

"Come back home....can you come back home, eh?" He fell asleep thinking about the great things they could accomplish in the future and how much he loved his members. For the first time in a long time, he truly smiled – he truly felt at home.


	11. Rockin' the Hotel Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook have absolutely nowhere to go and decide to just chill in the hotel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! How is everyone? I hope you're all doing great! I'm so, so sorry that I haven't uploaded in an eternity. I went on a week long Washington D.C trip last week and completely forgot that I was writing a story and everything. I've been trying to make up for it, so some chapters in the future may be shorter. School is almost out for me and I'll definitely try to write everyday so that I can have something out for you guys every week. Anyways, enough of that, enjoy~!

It was a Saturday morning. Tae had finally woken up before Jungkook for once. He had been called by Jimin and Hoseok last night and he told him about the billboard they saw on the first day. The two hyungs were as surprised as they were, but Jimin had barely said anything to him there. He called him later and talked about it and everything turned out alright. He swung his feet over the edge of his bed and got ready for the day, even though they had nothing extraordinary planned. He had some ideas as to where to go, as he did grow up here, but he wasn't willing to wake upJungkook so early. It was only about 6 AM, but Tae was quite used to that since he would always wake up with his other 95'er friend and spot him while he danced in the morning.

Right as he finished changing, Jungkook shifted in bed. Tae smiled and walked over, sitting down on the edge of the bed. He put his hand on the maknae's back, rubbing it slowly.

"Mm... what are you doing, Tae?" Jungkook mumbled, rolling over.

"Waking you up!"

"You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to wake me up, Tae."

"Are you sure? I'm giving you mercy right now," he explained.

"Mm... just go try," Jungkook said sleepily, about to seep into his dream again. Tae got off the bed and walked away from the bed–backwards. He bent down, putting 2 hands on the floor.

"Three!" he started a countdown.

"Two!"

"One! Last chance Jungkook!" Jungkook grunted dismissively.

"GO!" He ran towards the bed as fast as his feet could take him in that small space and jumped as high as he could, landing partially on top of Jungkook.

"Ah!" Jungkook was frightened. He struggled to get out from under the creature on top of him and fell on the floor in the process. His head barely missed the clock desk.

"Aish..." Jungkook looked up at a smiling Tae and simply glared at him scarily.

"Told ya'"

"I could've gotten a concussion," Jungkook complained while he got up, grunting.

"But you didn't. And that's what counts."

"Aye, never do that to me again."

"I wanted to get you up. You were already shifting."

"Aren't we doing, like, absolutely nothing today?" Jungkook remembered.

"Yeah."

"Then why did you wake me up so early?" He rubbed his tired eyes. "Agh! Taehyung..." he groaned.

"Well, since you're up, why don't we actually get something done, hm? We can practice singing and dancing after we grab something to eat and then we can catch up with our fans on Twitter and V App. Ne?" he proposed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jungkook slowly trudged to the shower. Once he was finally awake and done getting ready, Taehyung hit up YouTube on his phone, trying to find the karaoke version of I Need U. Jungkook was actually in the shower at the time, so he went to Twitter to tease their fans. He recorded a six second video of him singing the English song, Lucky. In the description, he put down "하하하하!" Once he sent it out, it got replies almost immediately. Most of the A.R.M.Ys were complaining about what a tease he was. After 5 minutes of reading replies, he sent out another tweet. This one said "아미, 진짜, 미안해. 사랑해요!". The replies he got were about the same as before, just some saying that its ok and they love him. Jungkook got out of the shower and Taehyung went back to YouTube to find the karaoke, but he picked up the camera first to get a video of them practicing.

"Jungkook-ah!" he called.

"Ne, hyung?" Jungkook answered, coming out of the bathroom.

"Ready?"

"Yeah. Put it on!" Tae pressed play on his phone screen and music with BG voices started to play.

 _Fall_ , everything. _Fall,_ everything. Fall, everything. Heutojine. _Fall,_ everything. _Fall,_ everything. _Fall,_ everything. Tteoreojine. Jungkook and Tae rapped to the rapper's parts before Tae started to sing his own part.

"But you're my everything, everything, everything." His sweet, soulful voice filled the room as he sang his short part before Jungkook's powerful voice intruded.

"I need you, girl. Wae honja saranghago honjasoman ibyeolhae." They finished the song with Jungkook successfully rapping to Rap Monster's part of the song.

"Our pitches were a little bit off in our solo parts," the younger boy noticed.

"Yeah.. I think it's ok, though."

"Shouldn't we sing a little bit more? You know, we haven't been been singing much since we came here and we used to do vocal warm-ups everyday. Don't you think it's important?"

"Well, as idols, of course it's important. But we're on _vacation_ , Jungkook. I'm surprised we're even practicing dance and everything."

"Tae.. just because we're on vacation does not mean we can slack off. What happens if we don't practice for long, hm? We're gonna lose our hard work." Jungkook explained.

"Ok, ok. We'll practice. Right now, I'm gonna tweet out to A.R.M.Y and tell them to meet me in V App. Is that ok with you?"

"Yeah! We haven't streamed in a long time. Let's do it. I'll go dry my hair." He got up and walked to the bathroom, a vrooming sound soon coming out of it because of the hair dryer. Tae, still out on the beds, pulled out his phone and tweeted out, just like he said he would.

**아미, meet me in the V App!! :D**

Once again, responses flooded the tweet. Lots of them said "I'll be there!" and "Wait for me!!" or "ily, Taehyung-ssi!". He smiled as he read them, thinking of how great the fans are. He pressed the little circle on the phone which exited from Twitter and he clicked on the V App. When Jungkook came out, his hair was soft and fluffy, but straight and he looked amazing. They set up a video on the app and made A.R.M.Y wait just to tease them. After about 5 minutes, the heart count was already up to 15,000,000 and they started the livestream. Tae turned on the camera so everyone could see them. Comments immediately started, with the majority of them saying "where are you guys???" or "why weren't you with the boys??"

"Ne, everyone. We're in Daegu right now, my hometown, which is why we aren't back with the rest of the gang. We're promoting here, so we're busy, don't worry. We're sorry that we can't see each other much, but I promise I'll make time after we get back. We just have a lot to do here. Did they livestream?" Tae said. The fans told him "Yeah, they danced."

"'What have we been doing here?' Jungkook read a comment aloud. "We've been promoting! We actually got some down time here and there, so we've been dancing and singing. Um," he looked at Tae, confirming that he can say what he was about to. He nodded his head slightly. "We got to see hyung's family. We surprised them and he played with his siblings and everything. It was a load of fun."A.R.M.Y responded with a lot of "awww" and "hwaiting!" to the two boys.

"Taehyung-ssi.." The younger boy decided to use his name for the sake of the streaming.

"Ne?"

"Should we entertain them?" Jungkook teased sexily.

"Yes, we should.." Tae gave back the same dirty look. They stayed that way for a couple seconds and the fans blew up, going crazy over a ship that was finally sailing. Until...

"Kai, bai, bo!" they played, tricking the fans. "Bo! Bo! Bo!" The two played over and over again since they had the same thing.

"BO!" Tae screamed as he finally won. "Yes! Jungkook-ah! Wrist. Out. Now." Jungkook pouted, begging with his eyes not to be hit. Tae pulled up his sleeves and used two fingers to hit his forearm, which actually hurt a lot more coming from Seokjin, but it still hurt. He rolled over to his side, exaggerating his pain. Tae sat there and laughed, also rolling from the pain in his side that wouldn't subside. When they finally calmed down, they played muk-ji-pa. Jungkook won 6 times, as he's been playing it a lot with Jimin recently while Tae won 4 times. They started talking to the fans after that.

"Ne.. how is everyone? Is everyone eating ok, getting enough sleep? Are you guys ok?" Jungkook asked the fans. They responded, yes, in the comments, until one caught Tae's eye. 

"Jungkook, look." Tae pointed at the comment.

"Ne, it says 'I've been dealing with school bullies and crap. Thank you for always being there for me, BTS!'" Jungkook read aloud. "We know what it's like to go through stuff like that. Just remember that we're always rooting for you. Don't stoop as low as them. Burn the haters, right? Hwaiting!" Jungkook cheered them on. Unfortunately, he had to say it quickly since it was unfair to read one comment and not read any of the others because of how many fans there are.

"Hold on a minute, guys, can you stop comments for a few seconds? I'd like to say something to everyone," Tae said. All the comments stopped. "Ok, thanks. When Jungkook and I were trainees, as far as it goes for me, I really really could not wait to debut, but I did have to. I know Jungkook went to America and Jimin was busy with dance, so I couldn't really talk to anyone. I got really sad at times and I got demotivated. All I wanted to say was, just don't get demotivated. We will always be there to cheer you on. Take that as motivation, ne? We love you so, so much. All of you. We'd hate to see any one of you feel sad because of some people saying mean things to you or any reason at all. Jinjja, saranghae, A.R.M.Y. I can speak for Jungkook too." Tae looked over at him, tears in his eyes.

"Ne, I really do love you all. 행봌하자. Be yourself. Be loud, be proud, love who you are. Because we love who you are. We will forever. A.R.M.Y, hwaiting!" he ended, heartwarmingly. Jungkook and Tae hugged each other in comfort. Tae wiped the tears from his eyes and continued to read some comments.

"What did you guys think of I Need U?" Jungkook asked. All the comments said were "I love you!" and "hwaiting!".

"Everyone," Jungkook laughed. "We know how much you love us and we're so grateful. But what'd you think of I Need U?" Some fans continued to comment with "I love you!" and such, but most fans commented "It was beautiful!" and "Jungkook-oppa looked good".

"Ah, Jungkook-oppa," Tae mocked. Jungkook hit him playfully on the arm.

"Ne, we worked hard for this music video. It was at least 16 hours of dance practice a day and 15 hours for the actual shooting. We're glad you like it!" They stayed silent and Jungkook showed Tae and A.R.M.Y a video from YouTube before saying goodbye.

"A.R.M.Y... we have to go soon. There's a lot of stuff to do today. We'll stream soon. Annyeong! Saranghae!" Jungkook made a heart with his hands as they ended the video and signed off.

"Aish, we should do that a lot more. I think the fans really appreciate it, especially the international fans," Jungkook realized.

"Mm.." Tae grunted, engulfed in his phone.

"Tae?"

"Ne?" He finally looked up.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, texting Jimin-hyung," he explained. Jungkook scooted over next to him and peeked over his shoulder.

"He's asking about how we are?"

"Yeah." It read _'What are you guys doing?'_ Tae had answered back asking if they could call and Jimin said sure. Apparently, he was setting it up right now.

_Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Ring rin-_

The camera turned on. Jimin's face was revealed. It was nighttime over in Seoul as well. His face didn't have any make-up on and it looked swollen, but they didn't mind.

"Hey! ChimChim!" Tae said.

"Hi, hyung," Jungkook smiled, not knowing what Jimin would do.

"Hey Tae, hey Jungkook. Oh Jungkook?"

"Yeah?" Jungkook was caught a little off guard.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn't have and Tae made me realize that I was wrong," Jimin admitted.

"It's okay. You had a good reason to. I shouldn't have lied to you, hyung. I'm sorry, too." The two boys made up over camera before having a session of grins and giggles.

"Hyung, are you ok?" Tae asked Jimin.

"Ne, why?"

"I'm just wondering. How have the hyungs been?"

"They're good. You know, practicing and practicing. Producing and producing. Yoongi-hyung and Namjoon-hyung are always in their room now, working on some beats and Hobie-hyung is always dancing with Jin-hyung. It's quite busy here," Jimin explained.

"Ah...what're you doing?" Jungkook questioned.

"I'm mostly dancing. A lot of vocal practice with Jin-hyung as well. What about you guys?"

"Well, we're on vacation, but we really don't get a break. When we get back to the hotel late at night, we always practice dancing. We just finished practicing singing again. Out voices sounded a bit raspy since we haven't sung in a while."

"Sing something for me. Sing an English song," Jimin told them. Tae and Jungkook thought for a while before whispering softly to each other, making sure that Jimin couldn't hear them. Their hyung waited patiently as they nodded their head, finally agreeing to a song they both know.

"Do you hear me talking to you? Across the water, across the deep blue ocean.." Jungkook joined Tae as they harmonized, filling the room with soft notes. "Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying." Jimin clapped at the end, smiles forming on all three boys.

"Yah, we should do a V App stream right now. With the three of us. We can do that, right?" Jimin asked.

"I think we can split screen." *you can't actually do this in V App. I'm just trying to make the story progress*

"Alright. Set it up and invite me?" Jimin compromised. Tae promised he would and went to set up the V App with Jimin. Once they invited him, they planned what they were going to do before Jungkook went to tweet out on his phone.

V App Live Time! ~JK

Fans started coming in immediately with views and hearts hitting 1,000,000 in less than 3 minutes.

"Yay! Come in! Come in!" Jimin said excitedly. _Where are you guys?_ the fans asked. _Why aren't you guys together?_ The three boys saw the comment but decided to just wait until all of the fans were here in order to answer it.

"Hey guys!" Jungkook started after there were 150,000 viewers. "So, as you can see, we're not with BTS as of right now. We're in Daegu promoting. We just thought it would be cool to do a V App stream together since hyung and I haven't been really seeing each other much." They stayed silent for some time, playing with their hair, looking at the comments.

 _Oppas, how are you?_ one fan asked.

"We're good, thanks. Been practicing a lot, you know. We've been singing and dancing a lot, been doing a lot. Of course, Jimin-hyung has too."

"I would get the rest of the members to come and stream with me.." Jimin started. The comments exploded, begging the boy to grab the members. He was waiting in order to tease them and pretended that he was going to grab them. In fact, he left his seat and closed the door and reopened it after 5 minutes. Tae and Jungkook watched as the comments blew up with most of the fans stating who their bias was and how excited they were to see them. When Jimin sat back down, there was nobody there with him. "But they're all busy!" The fans were disappointed, scolding Jimin for teasing them once again. Once they settled down, Jimin, Jungkook, and Tae played rock, paper, scissors and muk-ji-pa for half an hour. They were laughing extremely hard and the fans were all commenting, cheering each member on. 

"Ok, guys, well it's been a lot of fun," Tae said after a while. "I think it's time for us and Kookie to get back to work!" he concluded, making fun of Jungkook's cute nickname.

 _Do aegyo! Do aegyo!_ The fans commented. Jungkook sighed, complying.

"Buing buing!" He put on a bunny smile and did a little aegyo. Tae squealed, also doing some aegyo. Jimin actually didn't do any. He said goodbye to the fans after they played muk-ji-pa, leaving Jungkook and Tae to stream on their own.

"Annyeong!" they concluded. The two boys waved for about 3 minutes to all the fans before signing off.

"Jungkook-ah.." Tae started after the phone was off and minutes of silence. "Do you want to go practice dance again?"

"This coming from the person who wanted a vacation..?" he joked.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up." Jungkook chukled.

"Yeah, sure let's go." They changed once again and put on their dancing clothes, which were basically just tank tops and baggy shorts or sweatpants. When they got down to the gym, they were lucky as nobody was using it at the moment. They did what they did before and warmed up by stretching and dancing a little. They started the harder songs about half an hour in.

After a whole 3 hours of dancing, the two boys stopped, grabbing a sip of water. Jungkook checked the time. It was 6:36 pm.

"Let's grab dinner?" Jungkook suggested. Tae was silent. "What?"

"I don't know, it just sounded like you wanted to..you know..go on a date with me.." Tae said quietly. Jungkook's face turned all red with embarrassment. He chucked nervously.

"No, I'm just saying. You know, it's near our dinner time in Seoul, usually, and-"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, let's go." Jungkook nodded his head, agreeing. They started walking together out the gym. "Not like I'd reject that offer, though," Tae said under his breath, just to tease Jungkook.

"What did you say?" Jungkook whipped his head to face Tae immediately.

"Nothing, nothing," he lied, smiling secretively.

"Taehyung! Tell me!" The younger boy playfully shoved him.

"No, I didn't say anything! I swear!"

"Because everyone believes you, Tae," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Only you're here to believe me." Tae said. When they were near the door, he grabbed Jungkook's shoulder and shoved him against a wall, trapping him and staring him right in the eyes. The gym was silent and the heat had risen up to 1000˚. So did the tension, but so did the love. Jungkook felt it. He felt the love, he felt the lust, he felt the need to be with Tae. He was almost certain that he loved him back. They were meant to be together. All that time together backstage before and after shows, all the time practicing together until early morning, it all payed off. The 95'er line was powerful, but this–this could be even more powerful than Jimin and Tae together. This could be what the future is. Performing with BTS, being with Tae, loving his life. He snapped back to reality, in front of Tae, the older boy's two arms dangerously close to his head. The silence was deadly, almost killing his eardrums. Both of them were breathing heavily, dripping with sweat. It was a long 4 minutes before Tae started speaking again.

"Do you believe me, Jeon Jungkook?"


	12. Dinner With The One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an awkward ending after dancing, Tae and Jungkook head out to dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! So, I understand that I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks! That's almost absurd! It's honestly felt like forever, but I'm out with a whole new chapter! 
> 
> Also, some quite important news: I think I'm going to try to start a scheduled upload time, almost like full-time YouTubers. I'll try to post every two weeks on Saturday or Sunday at 6 PM (EST). Hopefully, that's a good upload time for some international fans (I see you guys~). I'm doing daily summer stuff, which is why the upload may be either weekend day. I hope you guys are still enjoying the story. It'll get better, I promise. Thanks for everything!

_"Do you believe me, Jeon Jungkook?"_

Jungkook stood still. The words that seemed so forbidden rung in his ears, repeating over and over again. Tae still stood in front of him, glaring him in the eyes. His arms were pressed beside his head. Their faces were closer than they had ever been. Had Tae moved one centimeter closer, their noses would be touching. The air was hot, the atmosphere was burning up.

"Tae... Come on...let's go eat.." Jungkook said quietly.

"I don't think you heard me," Tae said fiercely. "I asked you, do you believe me, Jeon Jungkook?" His voice was raspy, but husky. Jungkook looked down at the floor, nodding slightly. Tae did not allow this. Taking his hand up to his chin, he pushed Jungkook's head up to look at him. "I'm not taking any of that, Jungkook. You know me, you know how I am. Let me ask you one last damn time. Do you believe me?" he emphasized.

"Yes.." Jungkook said quietly. "I do believe you."

"Good." He backed away. To Jungkook's surprise, all he did was smile. "Now let's go eat dinner!" The sparks stopped flying and they were back to their regular selves again. They wanted to get a little more exercise in, so they walked over to the place where they were going to eat. Tae had recommended this place since he had been here many times in his childhood. It wasn't a fancy place with high ratings or anything. Instead, it was simply a noodle shop, but Jungkook liked that. He liked boring, he liked plain, he liked simple.

"What was that all about, Tae?" the younger one asked as they were walking.

"Nothing." 

"It didn't seem like nothing. What were you thinking back there?"

"How great you look when you're sweating and tired," he said honestly.

"What?"

"I know the hyungs say were look great and handsome on broadcasts. But I wanted you to know that you always look good to me," he mumbled. Jungkook was silent. He didn't know what to say. Should he compliment him? Should he just shut his stupid mouth? Should he sing to him, dance to him?? "Not gonna compliment me back, eh, maknae?" he teased, throwing Jungkook off guard.

"Ah, um, you always look good to me too," he blurted out.

"Oh, do I?" He chuckled, knowing Jungkook was embarrassed. "Look, Jungkook," He didn't stop walking. Tae grabbed his wrist, jerking it towards him so once again, him and Jungkook were face to face.

"Can we start over?"

"Why would you want to? You've had a great life, you know. You-"

"Not my life, no. I meant you and I. As...you know..." 

"I don't know. Tae, what are you trying to say?" he asked, confused. The older boy knew that Jungkook knew, but wanted him to say it. He was stalling, so he just dropped it.

"Never mind. Let's go eat, eh?" 

"No, I want to hear what you're trying to say." Jungkook pleaded.

"Nothing. It's just silly stuff. Let's go eat, Jungkook. I'm starving." With that, Jungkook dropped the subject and together, they went to eat.

Since they didn't reserve a seat, they had to wait for about 10 minutes before being seated, never mind the actual food. The place was a simple one with a lot of tables, but very few tables. 

"Hello, I am your waiter today and I will be serving you and taking very good care of you. What can I get you two gentlemen?" he asked politely.

"I will have the black bean noodles," Tae started, looking at Jungkook right after, nudging him on to order too.

"I'll have the ramen noodles and dumplings as appetizers."

"Yes, very good choice. I will have those out for you in just a minute."

"Thank you," they both said together. The waiter left.

"So, how are you, Jungkook?" Tae said suddenly.

"Wh-what?" Jungkook asked, once again off guard.

"How are you? How have you been?"

"Why are you asking now?" he shot, a little angry because of the situation that happened half an hour ago. Tae threw his hands in the air defensively, showing defeat.

"Hey, hey, just asking."

"I'm..I'm okay. Just a little tired, I guess."

"You okay?" he asked, clearly concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Having fun here, Tae? You know, back in your hometown."

"Yeah. It's been really nice. I actually really missed them. Like, a lot. It's been years since I saw them."

"Ah..." Jungkook said sympathetically.

"So, how was your life back home? Was it good?"

"Yeah. Of course, I do miss it at times. But yeah, it was a good life," he remembered.

"What was it like? Family, hobbies?"

"Why are you asking now?"

"Well, we're here, together. You've told me just a little bit about yourself and the company told me a bit, but I want to know you. I want to know who you are. From you," Tae explained. Jungkook was silent, hesitating, but Tae waited patiently.

"Ok.. um.." he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well, I grew up well, you know? I have an older brother who's in the military right now-"

"What about him?"

"Well, he likes to draw and he loves to play instruments. Him and I both, I guess. He was really good at drawing so I kinda just took after him and started to draw at a young age."

"Is that why you're so good?"

"Yeah, I guess. I could work on it... anyways. I started singing in elementary school. Just randomly sometimes, to different songs and things my parents would listen to. Then BIGBANG debuted and SHINee debuted. I started looking up to them a lot. I listened to their songs everyday when I went to bed and everything. My parents would look at me weirdly when I sang along. But soon after, I got into singing and started to do it seriously. I trained myself to sing well and I loved it so much, I auditioned for Big Hit and that's just how I got here."

"What about dancing?" Tae asked.

"What about it?"

"Well, why are you so good at it?"

"Well, when I went to America, I hated it so freaking much, but then I got into some American dancing. I saw the way they could move their body and saw the way they could choreograph practically anything. When I went back to South Korea, I said to myself, I'm going to be a dancer now. I told Jimin-hyung and he told me that if I debuted as a dancer, BTS would be lost. I worked on dance for days and days on end. That's kinda why I always stayed up late in the dance studio." Tae nodded his head. "I would work on choreography to American songs, whether they were already choreographed or not. It was a lot of fun."

"So you actually didn't like dance?" Tae asked, shocked.

"No, not really."

"I always loved dance, espeically hip hop. It always struck something with me. I always wanted to dance and when I got into BTS, I practiced and practiced and practiced. I was probably the cause of the continuous practice of Boy in Luv and Danger. When I saw Hoseok-hyung and Jimin dance, their bodies flowed so much. They could manipulate their bodies to basically defy the laws of physics, almost. It looked so cool and so amazing. They were who I looked up to for the first couple years. In fact, I still look up to them now." Jungkook nodded.

"Well, you've definitely gotten better," the younger one said.

"Yeah. Especially since I didn't put my all into the dance in America, I really wanted to make up for that."

"Your popping has gotten really good." At that moment, the waiter came over with the dumplings and set the hot pot on the table.

"Here are the dumplings. We will be out with the main dishes in a little bit, ok? Enjoy!" The thanked him again as he walked back to the kitchen. Jungkook grabbed the chopsticks and started eating.

"You're not going to eat?" He asked, noticing that he didn't pick up his chopsticks.

"Nah, I'll just wait. You eat!" He smiled. Jungkook continued to shove the food into his mouth, savoring the flavor.

"And rapping?" Tae asked.

"Well, it was just a matter of practice. I watched Namjoon-hyung and Yoongi-hyung do their thing and kinda just learned from that, you know?"

"Yeah..." A light suddenly went off in Jungkook's head. He half-slammed his chopsticks down.

"What's wrong?" Tae asked, concerned.

"I forgot that I have homework to do! Crap!"

"Hey, calm down. We can do it when we get back to the room, ok?"

"Well, it's due right as I get back!"

"Ok, ok, and we'll do it tonight."

"Fine, yeah. Sorry." He picked up his chopsticks and started to slowly eat again.

"So..how are you?" Jungkook asked when he finished chewing.

"I'm okay. Been better," he said truthfully.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, my arm hurts a little bit," he said, looking down at it. It was covered with a sweatshirt, but he lifted it up, revealing a couple scabs that have yet to heal.

"It's normal, Tae. Trust me, it'll get better."

"I know, I know. I might take some painkillers when I get back."

"That might be good for you."

"I've been kinda stressed lately. With us gone, I wonder what they're doing back at the dorm."

"Of course, they're practicing for the concert."

"Yeah, but that's another thing. I don't know if we're ready for the concert. We barely even practiced and we haven't gotten caught up on our singing recently. Maybe we should practice more.." he thought.

"Well, we have the hotel gym should we need it and we always can practice singing in our room."

"Jimin and Hoseok-hyung have been texting me a lot recently." At that moment, his phone rang. Coincidentally, it was Jimin. "And here he is right now. Sorry, let me grab this." He left the table and walked outside to make sure he wasn't a disturbance. "Yoboseo?"

"Hey...how are you?"

"I'm good. Jungkook and I are grabbing dinner. Why'd you call?" he asked, honestly confused.

"Just checkin' up. Tae... Are you happy there?" he asked suddenly. Tae was taken aback.

"I don't know how to explain it, Jimin. Of course, I'm happy with BTS and at the dorm. I know this is with Jungkook and you might feel left out, but Daegu will always be special to me. You know that."

"Yeah, I know. Like I said, I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

"Yeah..."

"Look.." the older boy started. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here. Whether you're in Daegu or America or here, at home. I'm here."

"There is something that I thought I should talk to you about.

"And what is that?"

"There's no easy way to say this....but..." Two people walked out of the restaurant, holding hands and walked to their car.

"What?" Tae waited until they were inside to say something.

"I tried to kill myself..." he said quietly. It wasn't quiet enough for Jimin not to hear, though.

"Kim Taehyung!" Jimin yelled, still forgetting that his hyungs could hear.

"It was a moment of weakness! I couldn't help it!"

"When?" he simply asked.

"It was a couple days ago."

"Why?" Tae could tell that his best friend was on the verge of tears.

"Jungkook was mad at me because of something and I remember him going down and saying he met GD when he was getting coffee, but I was angry and mad so I cut myself and downed some pills..."

"Taehyung.." Jimin was crying softly now. Tae could hear the cries.

"I'm sorry.."

"Don't be... Are you okay?" Tae's eyes started to water as he smiled.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine."

"You should've called me up, ok? I could've helped! I could've done something! I'm sorry, I really am."

"Don't be. It's not at all your fault. It's not Jungkook's fault, either. Just don't blame him. Please."

"Yeah, ok. Next time, call? Hopefully there won't be a next time. But if there is... call me first. I really do care about you, ok, Tae? I do. So please, call."

"Ok, I will. I promise."

"Ok, well, I need to go. Bye. Take care of yourself." Jimin ended the call and Tae wiped his eyes before walked back inside.

"Hey..what was that about?" Jungkook asked, still chowing on the last dumpling.

"It was nothing. I guess he just wanted to check up on me."

"Ok.. Well apparently, the food should be here any time soon, but they gave us bubble tea on the house due to the long wait," Jungkook explained.

"Ooh!" Tae grabbed the plastic cup and tore it on the top, poking a straw through the cover. "Mm, they have the best bubble tea."

"Anyways...Tae, are you ok now?"

"I'm okay, yeah. Thank you, though.."

"For what?"

"For caring and for coming to Daegu with me and for just everything you've done the last week."

"No problem. You are my friend, right? That's what friends are for." They smiled silently as their food came in.

"Thank you so much for waiting. Here is your food! Enjoy!" He left once again and they started eating. They ate in silence, hoping not to break the moment they had there. It took them about 10 minutes of laughing and eating to finish their noodles.

"So. Was it good or was it good?"

"Nah, it wasn't good at all. It was amazing. That was some of the best ramen I've ever had!" Jungkook agreed. Tae nodded his head.

"I told you. Gotta know Daegu well when you come, you know. You gotta know the best places to eat and the best places to visit."

"Maybe I'll take you to Busan with Jimin and we can visit our families," he teased.

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

"I think that would be really good..." They chatted and payed the check, soon leaving the building.

"Ah, that was a good dinner."

"I know," Tae said. They walked in silence, enjoying the lights on the streets and the skyline. It took them a full half hour to get from the noodle shop back to their hotel. They scanned the card in the slot and walked in. After both boys showered, they did what they promised they would at the noodle shop.

"Maknae.." Tae started.

"Ne?"

"You should do your homework. You know, it'd be bad if you turned anything in late. You know how Big Hit is about all that."

"Ok." He pulled out some papers from his backpack, grabbing a pen and getting started. Tae decided to put on some music and Jungkook didn't object, knowing that he worked better with the music on. Unfortunately, he's the type to get sidetracked extremely quickly. He soon started doodling all over his homework, drawing his hyungs fighting demons and dragons. He ended up doing very little of his homework before Tae came to check on him.

"How's it going, Kookie?" He walked up to him and peeked over his shoulder, gaping at the drawings he made.

"Uh... I can explain!" he said, smiling.

"Kookie! What're you doing??"

"I got sidetracked! I am tired.."

"You still have to do your homework!" Tae sat down next to him and helped him out. Jungkook pointed at multiple problems, claiming that he didn't know how to do them and he needed Tae to help him. He also wrote most of an essay that was due in about a week. It took him 2 hours to get done with everything, but once he was done, he got a break. Flopping down on the bed, he listened to the music and closed his eyes.

"Ah... Do you want to practice some singing?"

"Ok.." They started to put on different instrumentals of their songs and practiced singing along to them. At times, they would also try to rap to specific parts in the songs, mimicking what the three rappers do at concerts with their hands and facial expressions. Finding it hard not to laugh, the two boys half sang, half laughed along to the songs. In their rooms, in the tiny space they had, they would practice some dance moves while singing. They made up moves for Fun Boyz during Tae's part and practiced each one of them over and over until they got it right. Soon, the two boys realized that their space alone is not enough, so for the 4th time, they went down to the gym to practice. Since it was quite late at night, they couldn't sing loudly or make loud footsteps without waking up others, The gym was the perfect space to practice at this time since it had it's own floor.

Once they were done practicing, they headed back upstairs. It was around 11 PM now and they were both tired, but they wanted to talk a little bit more. They went back up to shower again and sat on the beds.

"Hey Tae."

"Yeah?"

"Let me see your arm.." Jungkook said quietly.

"Why?"

"I just want to see it. Make sure it's not infected or anything that could harm your body even more," he explained. Tae nodded his head, giving Jungkook his forearm. Slowly, he lifted up the sweatshirt that was covering it. Surprisingly, Tae didn't look away. Instead, he just looked straight at Jungkook, wondering how he's going to react. The cuts were clearly still visible as a week is not enough time to heal. They just looked like cuts, which was good since that meant they weren't infected. It was now that Jungkook realized that Tae was crying.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"Why are you not disgusted, Jungkook? I hurt myself, not only mentally but physically. People should be disgusted, but you aren't. Why?"

"Why would I be?" he mumbled. "This is my doing."

"Don't think like that! This had nothing to do with you. This was my choice-"

"This had everything to do with me.." A tear ran down his face. He covered it with his hands, sobbing into them.

"Jungkook, look at me.." His head slowly lifted. "Nothing could have stopped me. With you here or not, I would've done it."

"That doesn't stop me from thinking that it's all my fault."

"But it's not.."

"Never mind.." Jungkook wanted to stop talking about it.

"Jungkook..." the older boy started. "What if these are here forever? What if they're scars?"

"Then it'll just remind you of how strong you are. You can overcome anything. Maybe it'll even remind you of me," he smiled.

"Do you think the company will find out?"

"Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Then again, you have all the excuses in the world," Jungkook realized."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're an idol. You get pushed by fans a lot, right? You could say there was a mob and someone's camera scratched you. You could say your dog scratched you. In a way, it's good that it happened in Daegu because nobody can say, "no that didn't happen", you know?"

"Yeah.. Hopefully, they won't find out, but if they do, I'll probably use the camera one. Just because that's more believable. I don't think anyone actually believed the dog one." Jungkook laughed.

"Yeah. It's become such a popular excuse nowadays..." They stared at the floor, wondering what to say next.

"Well, I think you should go to bed, Kookie. It's nearly midnight," Tae told him.

"Alright. Well, any plans for tomorrow?"

"We could go to the amusement park?" Tae suggested.

"Alright! Sounds fun." Jungkook snuggled up in his bed, gripping the covers close to him. "Good night, TaeTae."

"Good night, Kookie." Tae grabbed his phone and also went into bed. His phone vibrated next to his arm, causing him to jump a little before picking it up and dimming the screen. It was Jimin.

Chim Chim:

hey, how r u?

Taehyung:

didn't you call like, half an hour ago?

ChimChim:

yeah.. just checkin up.

Taehyung:

i'm fine..shouldn't you get to bed? it's late...

ChimChim:

maybe i should, but maybe ur more important to me.

Taehyung: 

more important that sleep??? :P

than*

ChimChim:

no.

yes.

maybe.

IDK. shut up. you don't know me.

Taehyung:

XD hyung, go to sleep.

ChimChim:

what if im not tired?

Taehyung:

what, u gonna text me for hours?

ChimChim: 

you don't know what im capable of, Taehyung.

Taehyung:

yes, i do. and ur tired. go to bed. 

Zzzzz. 

please? for me?

 if you loVE ME LET ME GOOOOOO! TO SLEEPPPPPP!

ChimChim:

ha ha very funny. fine. 

are you good, though?

Taehyung:

yes, dear, i'm great.

ChimChim:

asshole. XD

Taehyung:

good night, hyung.

Chim Chim:

good night, Taehyung-ssi..

 

 


	13. Promise?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook go have fun at an amusement park!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys~! First off, so, so sorry for the late upload. First scheduled upload and you're already late. Good job, HipHopLover45. Good job. Anyways, I'll have a new chapter out very late on July 24th. I'm so, so sorry about the delay for both days. I hope all of you enjoy this chapter. Please comment what you'd like to see. I'd love to try to write it and see what you guys think of it. Thank you so much for all the patience and support! Enjoy!

Jungkook woke up early today, knowing that he and Tae were going to the amusement park. They hadn't been as a team for a long time and Jungkook desperately wanted to go again. He didn't want to wake up Tae, so he grabbed his phone and listened to music, snuggling up in his bed again. He started to listen to BIGBANG's songs along with his own songs and SHINee's songs. He sang softly to himself, under the covers so that Tae wouldn't hear him and wake up. After all, it was only 4:30 AM. When he sang the chorus to BAE BAE, Tae woke up. Jungkook didn't know as he couldn't see him. Tae sat there, listening to his soft voice filling the room.

_BABY BABY jigeumcheoreomman areumdawo jullae neon  
sigani jinado naega seollel su itge_

Tae got up, slowly walking over to Jungkook's bed.

_BABY BABY neon sideulji ma igijeogin nal wihae  
geu moseup geudaero neon geudaero yeoyaman hae_

He started to harmonize. Jungkook threw off his covers, surprised and shocked, but he continued to sing. He sat up, looking Tae in the eye.

"Why are you up so early?" Tae asked, his voice low and husky from sleep.

"Couldn't sleep, I guess. I'm kinda used to waking up early from going down to the dance studio with Jimin-hyung and Hoseok-hyung to practice."

"Ah.. You should sleep in more. It's not good for you to wake up so early everyday," Tae explained.

"It's ok. I'm used to it. Plus, I could use the practice on dance and everything."

"Did you dance today?"

"Nah, I got up, what, 10 minutes ago?"

"Oh, I guess I'm up early, too," Tae smiled. Jungkook shut off his music and stood up, joining Tae in starting to get ready for the day. It was a weekday, so the amusement park wasn't going to be so full. They planned out the day, also talking about whether they should wear their face masks or not. They weren't bothered by it, but it was going to be quite hot today.

"Do you really want to weak masks?" Jungkook asked.

"Don't we kind of have to?"

"Well, maybe they won't-"

"Jungkook.." Tae said, doubtfully.

"Well, what if they won't recognize us? You never know.."

"You know they will. We're idols now, Jungkook. I hate to sound cocky, but we're famous. Someone is gonna recognize us."

"Fine, fine." They had planned to stay from the opening time to the closing time. When Tae drove there with Jungkook in the passenger seat, Jungkook fell asleep. Tae chucked.

"There you go again, Jungkook. Falling asleep every chance you get." A few minutes later, the younger boy's head shifted, motioning to Tae that he was awake.

"Morning, sunshine," he joked, grinning. Jungook stretched, getting used to the environment around him once again. Once what Tae said really registered, his eyes opened wide.

"Wh-what did you just call me?" he asked, a bit panicked. His heart was racing a mile a minute and he didn't know what to do, what to say.

"Oh, relax. It was a joke," the hyung reassured.

"Didn't sound like one.." Jungkook said quietly. He was hoping his friend couldn't hear him, but with the car silent and no music playing, they could hear every sound the other one makes. Tae took a turn into a cornered parking lot, stopping and turning off the engine.

"I don't know, Jeon Jungkook..." He licked his lips sexily. "Do you want it to be real?" His hand reached over to Jungkook's thigh, placing it on him carefully. The younger one flinched, not knowing what to do.

"Again with the teasing, Taehyung.." he said, his voice barely a whisper.

"Sounds like you want me to, Jungkook." Silence. They looked deep into each other's eyes and sparks started flying again.

"I-Taehyung..."

"Come on, Jungkook. Enough is enough," he suddenly said, his voice rough.

"What are you talking about?"

"This has gone on for far too long, ok? I'm sure the members won't have a problem with-"

"Taehyung..."

"There's gotta be a way, you know. There has t-"

"Taehyung! Stop!" Jungkook cut him off.

"What, Jungkook?"

"I've told you so many freaking times. We can't do that," he repeated.

"There has to be a way, Jungkook.."

"Why? Can't you just accept the fact that we're in a business?" he fired.

"Of course I can. I know I'm in the singing business. But don't pretend that nothing has happened during this trip."

"And what are we going to do when we get back, huh? Just walk up to the members and say 'oh, we forgot to tell you. We're dating now.''

"Jungkook..." 

"You know that we can't, Tae. I'm sorry, I really am. But it's for the best."

"Can we.. can we at least try it? Please. You know that..." he choked on his words, unable to continue.

"I know what?"

"Never mind. Forget I said anything," he tried. Unfortunately for him, Jungkook was not one to drop something so fast.

"Wait, no. What were you going to say?" Tae tried to start the car engine again, ready to pull out and resume their drive to the amusement park.

"I said drop it."

"I need to know what you were going to say." Tae was about to push the engine button when Jungkook grabbed his arm, not allowing him to move.

"What were you going to say?"

"That I love you," he mumbled.

"Repeat that,' Jungkook demanded, pretending that he didn't hear him.

"I said that I love you," he mumbled again.

"Louder."

"I love you."

"Louder, Taehyung," Jungkook teased.

"I said I freaking love you, ok? Now will you drop it?" he yelled, the sound bouncing off the car walls. Jungkook said nothing, looking down at his feet. "Can we go now?" His voice was softer, almost regretting that he had yelled at Jungkook. The younger boy simply nodded his head. As Tae turned the engine, Jungkook leaned towards him. Tae tried to continue focusing on what he was doing. He was being distracted, but he didn't show it. The younger boy leaned farther and farther in, trying to look Tae in the eyes.

"Jungkook, what're you-" Jungkook cut him off, planting a soft kiss on his cheek. Tae sat there, not knowing what to do. "And what was that for?"

"I love you too, Tae," he admitted.

"Told you we should try it." He grinned, glad that his idea worked out.

"How about we try it on vacation and then we can see what happens before we go back."

"Sounds like a deal. Enough of this love stuff. Let's go play!" He pulled out of the parking lot, continuing the path that he was taking before he was so rudely interrupted. They turned on some music, completely ruining the moment they just had. When Shinhwa's Perfect Man came on, Jungkook piped up, excited.

"This ma jam!" he exclaimed.

"You got no jams, bro!" Tae fired at him jokingly.

"Hey!" Jungkook hit him on the arm playfully. "I'm not Jimin!"

"But Namjoon-hyung! When we are on the plane!" he remembered. They started mocking the elder member.

"'Jimin, you got no jams." Their voices went deep as they imitated him, laughing at the sound of their own voices. Jungkook soon resumed to singing the song with as much passion as he would on stage. In the middle of the song, he started to look at Tae. He realized that everything he had done was for him. Coming on this vacation, being able to be an idol. It was all because of him. He had motivated Jungkook so much that he felt like he owed the older boy.

"Jungkook?" Tae asked, eyes still focused on the road.

"Yeah?" he said as he snapped out of his trance.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure? We don't have to go today if you don't want to," the older boy reassured.

"No, no I want to go today."

"Ok.." the older boy said, believing him. To be honest, he was okay, just deep in thought.

Half an hour later after a highway full of cars, they finally arrived at the amusement park. It was almost 10 AM, which meant that they were about to open. The two boys put on their masks and nodded to each other, noting that they were both ready. They braced themselves as they walked out to the trolleys to bring them to the main park, but nobody could recognize them. Tae looked over at Jungkook and realized that he had a broad smile on his face. He hadn't seen him this happy in months.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked through the cloth over his mouth.

"I'm just...happy."

"You told me you were happy with the members back in Seoul too, though," Tae dove in.

"Yeah, I am. Definitely. It's just cool to not have to worry about fans and dancing. I'm just not stressed out today. It's cool to be able to come to amusement park with you, too," he said quietly, making sure nobody around could hear him.

"I agree," Tae said after thinking. They rode the trolley, talking about what they think the rest of the members are doing in Seoul. At one point, Tae's hand overlapped Jungkook's as they both leaned to that side, putting all their weight on that hand. They both stared, wondering what to do. But they both thought it was nice. Jungkook lifted his body weight off of it and flipped his hands, their fingers intertwining. Tae looked up, making eye contact with Jungkook. The younger boy could see the confusion in his eyes.

"What's the for?" he motioned towards their hands.

"We promised we were going to try it out, right?"

"Right..." They stayed like that for the rest of the ride. They had to let go as they entered the park, not wanting anyone to see them.

"What should we go on first?" Jungkook asked Tae after they went through security.

"I don't know," he said, still a bit speechless over how big the rides were. "What do you want to do first?"

"Lets go on that one!" Jungkook exclaimed, pointing to the biggest roller coaster in the park.

"Okay.." he replied absentmindedly. Jungkook took his hand, pulling him in a childish way. Tae looked around, turning his head every which way. They got in the half an hour long wait line. It wasn't until they were next in line that Tae realized where they were.

"Wait..." he said, looking around. Jungkook stared him, a goofy smile on him and jumping around excitedly. "Jungkook..."

"Yeah?"

"Why are we going on this FIRST?!" he asked, startling the other boy.

"Well, you said you want to, right?"

"NO!" he denied.

"You said we could go on whatever ride I wanted to go on first," he explained, confused.

"I did?!" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah!" Jungkook said as the gates opened. "Let's go! It's our turn!" He grabbed Tae's hand again and pulled him towards the ride. 

"Jungkook, I'm not sure if I want to-" He was cut off by the clicking of a belt and the shoulder bars that went over him.

"Too late!" he said, smiling. "No turning back now!"

"Jungkook!" he struggled, trying to get out.

"What?" he asked, an evil grin spreading. "You too scared, Taehyung?" Tae froze where he was in disbelief.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, are you too scared, Taehyung?" Tae thought he was teasing him again. Yeah, that had to be it. He narrowed his eyes.

"No. I'm not too scared," he denied.

"Then why are you trying to get out?" he reminded him.

"I just...wanted to go on the other one first," he lied. Jungkook nodded his head, knowing in the bottom of his heart that his hyung was lying.

"Sure, Tae. Hwaiting!" he ended. The roller coaster started, slowly climbing up the 200 foot slope. Jungkook, brave as ever, put his hands up.

"YOLO!" he shouted. The roller coaster climbed up, slower and slower. Tae could see more and more of the park as they went higher and higher up. It seemed as if they were going to reach the sky. Jungkook still had his hands up, also looking around.

"It's getting to the top!" the younger boy shouted.

"Jungkook!" he half shouted, half laughed. Nervous and excited, he gripped the bars until his knuckled were white.

"Calm down, Tae!" Just as they reached the top, Jungkook decided to be a jerk to the one he loved. "I'm kidding, you're gonna die on this!" he shouted right before the train of cars reached the top.

"Wait, what?!" The ride hurtled down at an insane speed for 4 seconds. Tae wasn't screaming, but he was in his head. His stomach dropped along with the ride

"WOOHOO!" he heard Jungkook shout next to him.

"Are you insane?!" Tae asked him. Jungkook turned over to him, brushing Tae's hair back. It had been flapping in the wind and was all messed up.

"Just a little," he answered honestly as quietly as he could. Right after, Jungkook put his hands up again, this time with Tae following his lead.

"WOOHOO!" the two of them shouted together. After twists and turns and ups and downs, the ride finally came to a stop. They were both breathing heavily with Jungkook coughing due to his dry throat from all the screaming.

"Agh," he exclaimed, trying to talk normally again.

"You okay?" Tae asked, laughing.

"Yeah, I'm fine." His voice was raspy and dry.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"See, Tae?" Jungkook reassured him. "Wasn't that fun?"

"Yeah..." he confessed. They got off the ride, stumbling from all the different directions they were just thrown in. They looked at the picture that was taken during a drop. Jungkook was smiling, hands up. Tae, on the other hand, was not.

"Tae!" Jungkook laughed. "You look like you've seen a ghost and that ghost is going to rip out your soul and intestines and sell it to a murderer!" He doubled over, almost falling over due to the laughter.

"Shut up!"

"Love you too!" Jungkook walked out of the exit gate. Tae's heart stopped beating for a moment. _Did he just... no. It was just a joke...right?_ He walked out after Jungkook and followed him to the next ride, which happened to be the tallest ride in the whole park. Basically, two people go and pair up. Then, they would sit in seats held by chains, side by side. As the ride went 400 feet up into the air, the riders would spin in a giant circle. By the end of the ride, they would've been able to see the entire park. Tae jogged to catch up the Jungkook, who was just a few feet ahead of him.

"Where we going next?" he asked, obviously not seeing the giant ride right in front of him. Jungkook kept walking, pointing to the ride.

"That one," he said boldly. Jungkook analyzed Tae's facial expression. "Ready?"

"Yeah.." he responded hesitantly. They got in line. Considering it was a scary ride that was fun for all thrill-seekers, but a nightmare for everyone else, the line wasn't too bad. It was about a 45 minute wait this time.

"The line's kinda long... Do you just wanna come back later?"

"Nah, not really. Plus, wouldn't the line just be so much longer?" Jungkook tilted his head, nodding. They played hand games that they learned as a child as they were waiting. They got closer and closer to the ride and the screaming and whooping got louder and louder.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Jungkook asked right before the gates opened.

"Yeah.." Tae decided for himself. Jungkook nodded, taking Tae's hand in his. Tae stared at it again.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

"Holding your hand."

"Why?"

"Because I love you," he replied bluntly. Tae followed the younger boy onto one of the pair of seats. They strapped themselves in for the hell of a ride. They were lifted up into the air. Before anything, Tae looked around to see if anyone was looking.

"What're you looking at-" Jungkook was cut off as his hyung took his face in one hand and held it as he removed their face masks. The ride was slowly going up. He leaned in, tipping Jungkook's head to look at him and placing a soft kiss on his lips. The younger one was confused, but thrilled in multiple ways. They started to slowly spin round and round. Jungkook's hands escaped from his side in the middle of the air, slipping to Tae's shoulders as they stood, frozen in time. The couple behind them were clearly watching, but luckily, they didn't know who they were. For the first time in his life, Jungkook let go and let himself feel the love. He let Tae kiss him and embrace him. He let people stare and ask to the person next to them 'what's wrong with those two boys?' because he didn't care. He finally loved Tae enough not to care what anyone else thinks. They finally let each other go. Jungkook was disappointed in the loss, but soon found comfort slipping his hand back into Tae's.

"That was..." Tae started.

"It was magical," Jungkook laughed.

"Yeah, it was.." They enjoyed the view from up above, pointing at everything that they passed, circle after circle around the tall structure.

"Do you not care anymore, Jungkook?" Tae asked.

"About what?" he replied, putting his face mask back on.

"About people caring. About being publicly..you know..." Tae pulled his face mask back on, too.

"No. I don't," he answered honestly. "I love you so much, I'm not even sure you know. I can't hold back anymore."

"I love you too, Jungkook."

"Thank you for waiting for me so patiently."

"You know I'd wait for you for all of eternity if I had to." The ride came to a stop and they got off, walking through the exit gates again.

"What do you want to go on, Tae?" Jungkook asked.

"How about that one?" He was pointing to a ride with a series of loops and twists. The drop was not big, but goddamn, the loops definitely were. As they walked towards the ride, they decided to grab something to eat. Sitting down, they ate some kimchi fried rice.

"So.." Jungkook asked. "You having fun yet?"

"After the first ride, hell yeah. If someone hadn't dragged me onto it," he gave Jungkook the death stare. "Then maybe I wouldn't have been so mentally unprepared.

"Hey, might as well get the worst ones over with first, right? It's better than riding the not as scary ones first and then chickening out of the best ride."

"True, I guess." They continued eating.

"You know, I was scared too," Jungkook confessed quietly. Tae looked up.

"What?" 

"I said I was scared too," he repeated at the same volume.

"Jeon Jungkook was scared?" he almost yelled, forgetting that they were well-known idols.

"Pipe it down!" Jungkook hushed. Tae slumped, apologetic. "Yes, I was scared. It was just...you were there so it was okay all of the sudden."

"Really? You would think of me in such a way after, what, 2 kisses?" he asked in disbelief.

"The number of kisses doesn't count. It's the fact that I have unlimited love for you."

"Ok, ok. I love you too. Let's eat and go on that ride," he remembered. They quickly ate, yet quietly strolled over to the roller coaster, trying to digest their food quickly enough to not throw up. Unfortunately for Jungkook, Tae got sick the moment they got strapped in, the safety restraints already clicking.

"Uh, Jungkook?" Tae called.

"What?"

"I don't feel so good.."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Mm," he gulped. "Nope."

"Enjoy your ride!" the announcer said over the intercom.

"Crap!" As they rode up, Tae looked like he was going to throw up. The ride reached the top and hurtled down at an insane speed.

"Oh no!" A loop came up and Jungkook put his hands up again, completely forgetting that his friend was about to throw up. But then Tae put his hands up too.

"Woohoo!" Jungkook looked at Tae.

"What, you're fine now?" 

"Yup. Perfectly fine." They went through loops and corkscrews and barrel rolls as they twisted and went upside down and inside out. After about a minute, they pulled back into the station, their hair messed up.

"Aish..." Jungkook exclaimed, smiling.

"I know!" Tae ruffled up Jungkook's hair some more.

"It's already messy, Tae!" he noticed.

"I know! You look cute! Cute~!" He pinched Jungkook's cheeks. He slapped the older boy's hands away, giving him a glare.

"Shut up!" They got off, wandering around to 23 other rides and doing a bunch of the roller coasters over again. As the park was close to closing, they started to wrap up their day and leave.

"So.." Jungkook started, locking his hand into Tae's. "Are you a thrill-seeker yet, Tae?"

"Mm.. Maybe..." he replied.

"What?! We just went on, what, 15 different roller coasters? Come on, you can't tell me that you seriously don't like roller coasters after that."

"I don't know..." Jungkook sighed.

"You know.." he thought. "Today, I was wondering what it would've been like if the hyungs were here. It was definitely so much fun with just you and I, but what would've it been like if, say, Hoseok-hyung were here?"

"He would scream endlessly and annoy the fuck out of us," he answered honestly. Jungkook threw his head back, laughing.

"He probably would..."

"But I know what you mean. With Yoongi-hyung and Namjoon-hyung producing songs, they can't come. Then at the same time, Jimin and Hoseok-hyung are practicing dance and streaming Hope on the Street constantly."

"What about Jin-hyung?"

"He's..." Tae stopped and thought. "He's literally just eating," he reflected.

"I know! But I guess he is filming Eat Jin, which is pretty big apparently."

"Why do people watch it, though. It's just him eating!"

"Because it's Jin-hyung! Everyone will watch him. He's a cute little kid stuck in a man's body." They laughed as they made their way back to the car. As they got in, Tae started the engine.

"So.." Jungkook started again. "Are you a thrill-seeker yet?"

"Maybe..if you give me a kiss I will be," he teased. Jungkook rolled his eyes, but complied, pulling down their masks. His hands reached Tae's face and held it there as he pressed his lips against the older boy's. With closed eyes, they leaned into each other, finding comfort in their company. Jungkook pulled back after a long, sweet kiss.

"I'm glad we don't have to hide it anymore." Jungkook confessed.

"I'm glad too, Jungkook. I love you."

"I love you, too, Tae."

"Will you love me forever?" Tae tested.

"I will." Jungkook replied.

"Promise?"

"I promise." 

 


	14. I Hope You Know That I Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook meet someone unexpected at dinner after the park..  
> Their hyung, Jimin, calls and tells them about the events happening back at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know it's late and once again, I'm so sorry for the delay but here's a new chapter! i just got home from a late flight and a tiring day.  
> But on another note, thank you guys so much for 1,000 hits! It's not that much if you look at it widely but it's huge to me. I'm so glad many of you (hopefully) like the story and it brings me joy to know that someone out there is reading what I write. You guys mean the world to me. I might be making another BTS story soon in a little celebration of my first big milestone. Again, I couldn't have done it without all of you guys and I can't thank you enough. Some of you probably just skipped this, but I love you all to the moon and back and without further ado, a new chapter!

"Aish.." Jungkook exclaimed.

"What?" Tae asked, behind the drivers seat.

"Such a long day!" He stretched out in his seat. At that moment, the music faded away as the car phone rang. Tae reached over and pressed the "pick up" button on the touch screen.

"Yoboseo?" he asked.

"Taehyung?" a familiar voice answered.

"Yeah?"

"It's Jimin."

"Hi, hyung!"

"Hyung!" Jungkook exclaimed.

"Hey, Jungkook.."

"So... how's it been over there?" Tae moved the conversation along.

"It's nice..." he said quietly.

"Jimin..?" They both knew something was wrong: that something had happened.

"Ne?"

"What happened?"

"Nothing!" he said quickly.

"Seriously, hyung.."

"I'm serious, Taehyung, nothing happened."

"We're 95'ers. I thought there were no secrets between us." They heard a long sigh on the other side of the phone.

"Remember how we called each other one night?"

"Yeah?"

"Well.. the next day, I got up at 4 to go dance."

"Isn't that normal for you, hyung?" the maknae asked.

"Yeah, but I guess I didn't drink enough water and..."

"No..." Tae started. "You didn't.." There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"What?" Jungkook asked.

"Look, I'm sorry. Yoongi-hyung was there, so it wasn't like I was alone."

"Yes, but still! Don't..."

"Don't, what?"

"You shouldn't have done that!"

"I know, I know.. I was stressed out and pissed off and I just-"

"Jimin."

"I couldn't really cont-"

"Jimin!"

"rol my emotions and I kinda ju-"

"Park Jimin!" Tae shouted. The car went silent, Jungkook staring at his hyung. "How long?"

"Huh?"

"How long was it?"

"3 hours..." he answered.

"3 motherf-"

"Hyung, language." Jungkook cut him off. He sighed.

"I need to be able to trust you if I ever go away, hyung."

"I just needed to get some stress out..."

"And that's okay, but I need to be able to know that you'll be okay," he lectured.

"I will..."

"Look, hyung," Jungkook interrupted. "It's late. I think you should be going to bed soon."

"Alright, Jungkook. You guys stay safe. Hwaiting.." He hung up the phone. Tae pulled over to a nearby restaurant to eat and rested his head in his arms. Jungkook just stared.

"Hyung, what happened?"

"Jimin-hyung.." he mumbled.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, yeah... I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Jimin woke up at 4 AM to dance and passed out." Jungkook was silent, in shock. "Yoongi-hyung was with him and took care of him until the rest of the members arrived." A couple minutes passed in silence as they thought about their precious hyung until the phone rang again. Jungkook picked it up.

"Ne?"

"Rude," he heard a voice say.

"Hoseok-hyung?" Tae's head rose as he spoke.

"Yeah. I just saw Jimin. He looked beat."

"Yeah, we just spoke to him over the phone."

"What happened?"

"Apparently, he passed out," Jungkook explained.

"Yeah, he did. Yoongi-hyung wa-"

"Was with him, yeah, we know."

"We didn't really let him do anything for the rest of the day," he told his dongsaengs.

"That's good." Tae said quietly.

"Look, don't blame yourselves, but also, don't blame him. He didn't mean to. You know how he is about dancing. He's always like that. He just forgot to drink water, that's all."

"Alright. Hyung, we're gonna go eat. You should go to bed. Look after Jimin-hyung for us, will you?" Jungkook spoke for the both of them."

"I will, I promise. Just... finish up and come back home, okay? We miss you here." He hung up the phone.

"Hyung..."

"Yeah?"

"We should probably go eat... you look tired out." Tae rubbed his eyes as Jungkook leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Come on." They got out of the car and went to grab a seat inside the diner.

"Are you okay?" Jungkook asked again once they were seated.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Once they ordered their food, they started to chow down and Tae found himself much happier.

"So.. about that thing we talked about this morning.." Tae looked up from his delicious noodles.

"Yeah? What about?"

"Are you serious about it? Do you want to try it?" Tae looked at him, almost hurt. He lifted his hands up and Jungkook mimicked him, their hands joining at the center of the table.

"I love you with all my heart, Jeon Jungkook, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I love you with all of mine too."

"Then why don't you believe me when I say that I'm willing to try it out?"

"It's not that I don't believe you, Tae. It's just that... I want to make sure that you're okay with it."

"Of course I am..." Tae leaned in to snatch a quick kiss from Jungkook when the waiter arrived with their check for the night. Jungkook and Tae blushed, embarrassed.

"Ne, I'll pay at the front desk." They got up, putting their face masks on and walking towards the desk when they ran into someone. Tae and someone else bumped into each other, causing both of them to immediately bow, apologizing to each other deeply. But Jungkook sensed something so familiar about this person's hair, his voice, his jawline, his body shape. He felt like he knew him and even as they walked in opposite directions, Jungkook continued to stare at him.

"Yah!" Tae shouted from the doorway, not wanting to let EVERYBODY here know that a pop star is in the restaurant. Even then, Jungkook didn't turn around. He continued to stare at this guy. He swore that he knew who he was. It's just... where did he see him? Tae grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the doorway leading outside, apologizing to staring people.

"Jungkook-ah!" Tae said when they were alone. "What was that?"

"I just..."

"You can't do that in public!"

"No! I swear that..." He stopped, thinking.

"What?"

"I knew him."

"Who?"

"The person who bumped into you."

"What? No, he was just some random stranger."

"No, I know him. His hair, his voice... it was all so familiar."

"Well, who was it?"

"Hold on." He pulled out his phone, looking through his phone and hoping that the contacts can help him out. He scrolled through them, wondering who it could possibly be until he stopped on one particular person. He had orange hair and was fairly skinny. Jungkook knew.

"Oh my god, dude!"

"What, what, what?!" Tae leaned over his phone to take a good look at who it was. Jungkook pressed on the contact, showing Tae full view of who he bumped into.

"It's GD-sunbaenim!"

"Oh my god..." Tae said, backing away while Jungkook continued to fanboy over his biggest celebrity crush.

"What? You just bumped into freaking G-Dragon!"

"Yes! I know, Jungkook! But on the other hand..." He looked embarrassed and stressed out. "I just bumped into freaking G-DRAGON!" he emphasized.

"Ohhhhh..." Jungkook looked down. "Look, I'm sure it's fine. I'm gonna text him to come out."

"No, don't-!" But by the time Tae reached him, Jungkook had already sent the text.

Jeon Jungkook:

hey, will u come outisde for a sec

GD-sunbaenim:

why? :P

Jeon Jungkook:

i want u to meet someone.

GD-sunbaenim:

who?

Jeon Jungkook:

just come outside, will you, hyung?

GD-sunbaenim:

fine, let me just tell daesung that i'll brb

wait a sec.

why are you even here?!!!!

Jeon Jungkook:

legit?

just come outside. i'll explain then. 

 

A minute later, he saw someone come out with a face mask on.

"Hyung!" Jungkook went to hug him. GD smiled, hesitantly putting his arms around the other boy.

"So, who did you want me to meet so badly?" Jungkook stepped aside, revealing his shy, older friend. He waved slightly, acknowledging who he was talking to.

"Hiya!" GD greeted friendlily, waving back at him. Tae straightened his back and smiled his box smile. "Ah, you're Kim Taehyung, right? Amazing vocalist from Bangtan Sonyeondan?" 

"Yeah... I am," he mumbled quietly.

"Your voice is so soulful. Aish, I wish I had a voice like yours," the rapper exclaimed.

"Thank you.." GD offered his hand and Tae firmly grabbed it, shaking it with intention.

"Sunbaenim.." he said.

"Please, just call me GD or G-Dragon or whatever. No 'sunbaenim'," he insisted.

"I'm so, so sorry about bumping into you!" Tae confessed.

"It happens. It's honestly alright." They stood there, awkwardly smiling for a few minutes before GD's ringtone started playing. "Ah, sorry." The two boys nodded, telling him that it was okay to pick up the phone.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just meeting up some long-time-no-see friends in the parking lot. Yeah, I'll be right in. Just order without me. Yup. Alright, bye." 

"Gotta go?"

"Yeah, soon. But what'chu guys doing in town?"

"We could ask you the same thing."

"We're just working on some new songs. We plan to have our comeback here."

"Oh.." Jungkook understood.

"And you guys?"

"Promotion. And maybe some alone time.." Tae slipped his hands into Jungkook's.

"OHHHH, is this a thing?" GD whispered. They both nodded, Jungkook looking down and smiling. GD walked towards him and lifted his chin up. "Don't be afraid, okay? Don't you dare be ashamed. If other people don't like it, then they can go f themselves. If you won't do it for yourself.." He pulled Jungkook into a hug. "Then do it for me." He could feel the younger boy nodding on his shoulder. "Alright, well. I should go. Daesung is gonna get pissed. I'll talk to you guys later, alright? Call me sometime, Jungkook." He walked back into the restaurant to continue his dinner with his bandmate. 

"Welp..." Jungkook started.

"So... GD knows we're a thing now..." Jungkook smiled widely and leaned over to hug Tae.

"I'm glad he knows.."

"I'm surprised that he didn't run away." They both chuckled.

"I love you, Tae."

"I know... Now let's go back to the hotel. I'm sure you're tired at this point."

"After that, how could I be?" What Tae didn't know was that he had set up a whole romantic thing back at the hotel, asking the room service people if they could do it for him since they'd be out the entire day. They agreed and off they went. Once they got back to the hotel, they walked into their room. 

"Wait, Taehyung," Jungkook stopped him. Tae blinked, wondering why he used his full name.

"What?"

"Close your eyes," he said suddenly.

"What, why?"

"Just do it. Please, do it for me."

"Okay..." he said, hesitantly. He closed his eyes, trusting Jungkook to lead him through the darkness. He felt a hard grip on his shoulder, suddenly pushing him forward.

"Don't open your eyes!"

"I promise I won't." He continued to blindly turn and walk and turn and walk. He heard a faint clicking noise and he knew he was at their room.

"Jungkook," he sighed.

"What?"

"Why did you have me close my eyes all the way at the elevator if you're just gonna lead me to our room?"

"I wanted to make it special. Come on, walk forward," he called. Tae obeyed.

"What're you even doing?" he asked as Jungkook smiled.

"Open your eyes," he teased. Tae slowly lifted his eyelids, a soft light pouring in. Jungkook was no longer standing there. His eyes widened as he realized what was in front of him.

All around their hotel room were rose pedals, scattered on the floor and partially on the bed. There were chocolates, carefully placed and sorted on the computer desk. Flowers stood in a beautiful vase on their desk next to their bed. A fancy candle was placed next to the chocolates. It was lit in the most perfect way, the single flame waving ever so slightly. The most beautiful sight of this man-made scenery was when Jungkook walked out of the bathroom, all dressed up in a tuxedo. He was looking down at the floor, way to embarrassed to look at Tae. He chuckled at Jungkook's shyness.

"You're cute, you know that?" His cheeks turned a bright red as his face heated up. "What's the occasion, babe?" Jungkook looked up in shock, not saying anything.

"Why'd you call me that?"

"Call you what?"

"'Babe'. You never call me that."

"Jungkook, you just set up the most romantic date ever _in our hotel room_." He pointed out. "Don't you think it's a little late to argue over that?"

"We're not arguing.. I'm just not really used to it."

"I don't expect you to be. Anyways, what is this?"

"Like you said, it's the most romantic date ever. Here's to Kim Taehyung: the best boyfriend in the whole, wide world."

"Am I like, officially your boyfriend now? Is this a thing now?"

"Yeah, it is a thing. You're my thing." He walked towards the older boy, all dressed up, suit and tie. Tae put his hands at Jungkook's cheeks, gently touching them before pulling him in for a soft, sweet kiss. Their hands slipped to each other's waist and neck as they stood there, engulfed in the moment. At that moment, something started to play on the computer. It was hooked up to speakers. The song was Taeyang's Wedding Dress. At the chorus, Jungkook started to sing along.

"What're you doing, Jungkook?" Tears welled up in his eyes.

"Hopefully.." He looked up at the older boy. "You can be the one in the wedding dress for me.." Tae threw his head back, laughing.

"Why would a boy be in a wedding dress?"

"You probably would."

"Yeah, probably." They laughed together.

"Shall we enjoy this night...babe?"

"Why, of course, my love." Although Jungkook knew that they were just playing around, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed, and he looked down at the ground once again. "Jungkook-ah! Why so shy?"

"I'm just..not used to it."

"Your exes didn't call you babe and love and stuff?"

"I didn't tell you?" Tae blinked, obviously confused. "I've never had a girlfriend or a boyfriend before."

"Wait...how do you know that you're..." He pointed it out with his eyes.

"I didn't know until you came here. Every time I see you, it's just... my heart starts to race and I get so happy when I'm around you. It's just always there."

"With me?"

"Yeah."

"Jungkook, I'm not worth this."

"Yes, you are. You are worth all of this. Every single piece of it."

"You don't know that, Jungkook."

"Yes, I do. I do know that and I promise you that you're worth it."

"I don't-"

"Shhh. Come here." His arms secured around Tae's waist, pulling him in closer and hugging him tightly. He started to kiss his neck, making his way back up to his handsome face. "You look amazing, you know that?"

"Says the one in the tux."

"Let's get our night started, shall we?"

"Yes, we shall." They headed over towards the bed, cuddling up with each other and turning on the TV. Jungkook occasionally turned his head to kiss Tae.

"Jungkook, stop! I'm trying to watch, man."

"Awe," he pouted, "I thought I was your babe!" He started to attack him, tickling Tae and kissing him all over.

"Stop, stop stop!" he laughed, asking for mercy.

"Call me babe and maybe I will!"

"Fine, stop it, babe, stop!" Jungkook halted his attack and picked up the phone. "What're you doing?"

"Calling room service."

"Why?" Jungkook shoved a finger up to Tae's lips in order to silence him.

"Yes... Oh no, could you cancel that. Oh yeah, that'd be delightful. Alright. Okay, thank you. Bye bye." He put the phone back.

"What'd you just do?"

"You'll see." He sat right up next to Tae once again, curling up against his side. Half an hour later, someone knocked on their door. Tae fell asleep next to Jungkook, who tried to get up without waking up his hyung. A she opened the door he saw someone with a fancy tux was standing outside, holding a metal plate with something in it.

"Jungkook-ssi?"

"Ne, that's me." He reached over to grab the plate in his hands, offering to take it since Tae was asleep inside. "I can take this."

"Okay, and I'll charge this to your room?"

"Yes, please. Thank you." They bowed to each other and Jungkook closed the door, setting the plate on top of the ice bucket sitting in their room and climbed back into the bed as he waited for Tae to wake up again. When the show that they were watching finished, Tae started to shift a little, opening his eyes slowly. He stretched out on the bed, yawning as he finished.

"Morning, sunshine."

"What time is it?"

"Don't worry, it's like, 10 pm."

"Is it?"

"Yeah. Awake yet?"

"Mm.." he thought carefully.

"What? You want to sleep more?"

"Do you want me to go back to sleep?"

"To be honest, I kinda want to spend some time with you tonight. That's why I set this up."

"Then maybe you should give me a kiss and maybe I'll wake up."

"Maybe... I should tickle you and then you'll wake up!!" Jungkook tacked Tae in the bed, ticking him everywhere that he knew was vulnerable.

"Kookie! Stop!"

"Wake up and I'll stop!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake!" he said in between laughs. Jungkook paused his merciless attack on Tae's poor sides.

"Promise?"

"Yeah, now get off of me!" Jungkook got off and decided that he wanted to wait to see how long it would take his now official boyfriend to notice the giant metal platter. It took about just 5 minutes.

"Hey Jungkook?"

"Yeah?" he responded from the chair in front of the platter.

"How long has that been there?"

"Oh, it's been there since you were asleep."

"What?! What is it?"

"Well, I told you that this was going to be special and well... we already had dinner, so.." He took the cover off the plate. "Here's dessert!" On the shiny platter stood two sundaes with fancy spoons. Jungkook picked them up, handing one over to Tae.

"I know we're going to have to go back soon, so... I've had a lot of fun on this trip."

"As have I. We should definitely do this more often."

"Cheers, hyung," They clanked their two cups together and dug into their ice cream.

"You know that we're going to have to tell them once we get back, right?"

"Yeah, I know I that. I just.. I think I'm going to tell Jimin-hyung over the phone."

"When?"

"I don't know. It'll either be tomorrow or when we get back."

"Why tomorrow?"

"We don't really have anything planned, right?"

"Nah, we don't."

"Do you think we should call him now?"

"Well, it's supposed to be our night... nobody else's. Just us. Alone together."

"Alright, let's call him later then. Come on, we should eat our ice cream." They sat together talking all night and eating their ice cold cookie dough ice cream. When it was 12:14 AM, Tae finally started to get tired.

"Jungkook"

"What, no 'Jungkook-ah'?" he teased.

"Well, now that you're my official boyfriend," Jungkook blushed at the title. "I don't really know what to call you. Since gays aren't really too popular in Korea, let alone gay idols."

"Yeah, just continue calling me 'Jungkook-ah'. Can't have a slip of tongue on television, now can we? Anyways... what did you want to say?"

"Oh, I just wanted to say that I was kinda tired. I was gonna go to bed..."

"Yeah, of course. I'm going to go hop in the shower. It's freaking hot in this tuxedo."

"Alright.. good night, Kookie."

"Good night, TaeTae."

"Oh, and Jungkook?"

"Thank you for everything you did tonight. I really do appreciate it," he said as he smiled big.

"No problem, Tae. I told you, you're worth it. Every piece of it."

"I hope you know that I love you.."

"I know. And I hope you know that I love you, too."

 


	15. Picnic By The Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook explore Daegu, but Tae has something else planned...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Back again with a new chapter!  
> I know I can be very spontaneous at times with uploading, but I finally have an official social media page that I will be using and it's on Twitter. Follow me @HipHopLoverKK for updates on times and such! I usually don't promote social media that much, but I hate when you guys have to wait and not know what's going on. Still hope you guys enjoy the story! Thanks for reading!  
> You guys can comment ideas for stories, I'm open for all ideas!   
> <3

Jungkook woke up before Tae once again, rolling over and checking the time before going to get ready for the uneventful day, it seemed like. You see, they were so tired out from the day before that they really didn't know what to do the day after, today. Tae wanted to stay in the hotel, claiming that he already knows Daegu. Jungkook fought back...

       ("Tae! Come on, please! I've never been to Daegu... Well, I didn't freaking live here like you did. We should go see something! "

        "No... Jungkook," he flopped onto the bed on his back, making the pillows jiggle around. "I lived here for my entire childhood, I know the entire place."

        "Well, I didn't! I hardly ever get to go! Plus..." Jungkook stopped, climbing over Tae, kissing him all over to make him fall for Jungkook's charm. "We're together... don't you think we should go?"

       "Jungkook.." Tae didn't seem amused.

       "You know... Get to spend time with each other," he said as he buried kisses into Tae's neck.

       "Jungkook."

       "We could have fun and-"

       "Jungkook!" The younger boy paused awkwardly, looking at Tae. "No... Look, this," he gestured to his actions. "It's not phasing me. We'll see what happens tomorrow and... I'll decide whether or not we go, ok?" Jungkook's eyes lit up with excitement from the hope of walking around Daegu.

       "Yay! Ok!" And off they went to bed.)

He wanted so badly to just jump on his hyung, waking him up and forcing him to go along with him on his adventure.

But no, apparently not. He sat at the computer desk and waited...

And waited...

And waited for Tae to wake up.

Finally, at 11 AM, Tae shifted in his sleep, notifying Jungkook that he's about to get up. He smirked, creating a plain in his head.

       "He did this to me, so I'll do this to him," he said.

       "Mm, Jungkook..." he mumbled.

       "Awake yet?"

       "5 minutes," he said like a child.

       "Fine then." Jungkook got ready, bending down into his racing position. "Get ready, Tae. You're in for a pretty good surprise." Within a second, he raced across the room, going as fast as his legs would take him. "Revenge!" he shouted as he jumped high up into the air... and landed right on Tae. He groaned, doubling over in bed.

       "Ugh, Jungkook. Why, what was that?"

       "You're up now, right?"

       "Yeah, definitely. Why did you wake me up though?" he wined.

       "I wanna go sightseeing!" 

       "Another day, Jungkook." He rolled over, facing the wall. Jungkook shoved him back to look at him.

       "You're already up... so let's go!"

       "Fine, fine." Jungkook's smile grew as Tae got up and got ready for a hot, sweaty, tiring day.

       "Ready?" Tae finally grabbed his backpack after an hour.

       "Yup. Let's go.." They walked out of the hotel after grabbing a cup of coffee and putting on their (quite cute) face masks. Once they got outside, Tae wanted to go to the center of town again.

       "We already went, Tae."

       "Yeah, but it felt kinda rushed, you know? I want you to fully enjoy Daegu for what it is."

       "Alright. Let's walk over there and maybe eat lunch?"

       "Yup. Let's go!" When they got over there, it looked exactly the same. They saw the same buildings and the same billboard and the same things happening. "Hey, Tae?"

       "Yeah?"

       "Do you think we should surprise our fans?" he suggested. 

       "That wouldn't have been a bad idea had the entire band been here, but it's only us, Jungkook. Let's focus on us." He slipped his hand into Jungkook's.

       "No, I know. But I just feel bad sometimes."

       "I know. Come on," he urged, pushing Jungkook. "Let's keep going." As they continued walking, Jungkook forgot all about the ordeal and continued his day. They went into the little shops and looked around, spending some money here and there. When they sat down to have lunch, they had a different idea for the rest of the day.

       "Tae, I think we should call Jimin..."

       "Well, I think we can do it when we get back. That way, he gets a proper explanation and-"

       "Explanation? Do you really think that he would need an explanation?"

       "You never know. He could react in any way, really."

       "Okay. I guess that makes a little bit of sense."

       "Alright. Well..." He looked down.

       "What?"

       "Remember when you surprised me with that romantic date back at our hotel?"

       "Yeah, what about it?"

       "Let's just say that I have a little surprise for you too."

       "Tae..."

       "Shhh. I know that you're just gonna object, but I already planned it. I promise, it'll be almost as perfect as what you gave me," he promised.

       "Almost?"

       "Well, to be fair, nothing could top what you gave me."

       "Babe, all I did was ask the hotel to set up some stuff for me. It wasn't much."

       "But it was so, so special and I want you to feel what I felt, go through the emotions that I went through. Because," Tae held his hand again. "You're special to me." Jungkook smiled, leaning over to give the goofball a kiss on the lips.

       "You're such an idiot, Tae.." he said as they kissed. "But you're my idiot. And my idiot only." They broke the kiss, leaning on each other's foreheads before going back to eating their lunch. The bill ended up being $35, but Jungkook and Tae were fighting over who would pay the check.

       "You're already doing something for me. Let me pay!"

       "I don't care, Jungkook! It's something small." Tae's long arms reached out to Jungkook's hands, trying to swipe the credit card, but he wasn't fast enough.

       "Stop it! Let me pay for once, come on. Please." Tae paused where he was, deciding whether or not he should give up.

       "Fine. Go ahead. Give me your card and I'll put it in the thing." Jungkook looked at him strangely.

       "Promise?"

       "Promise."He reluctantly handed over his credit card, hesitating for a slight moment before reaching over and slipping the blue card into his hands. Tae nodded his head in acknowledgement and Jungkook smiled, feeling satisfied. But Jungkook didn't know that Tae switched out the cards underneath the table and put his card into the check folder. When the waiter came back after swiping the card and paying for the food, Tae quickly grabbed his credit card back, not wanting him to know. They left the place and Tae continued on with his plan.

       "I need to go somewhere before we go to...where I want to go."

       "Yeah, of course. Where do you want to go?"

       "Let's go to the bakery that's a couple minutes from here." As they walked, Jungkook stared at the shops that he's never seen before.

       "Oh my gosh, Tae, look at that one!!!" The older boy just continued to nod his head. "This is so cool!" Jungkook did a 360, glancing at every shop.

       "Jungkook.. I think you forgot that I lived here, in Daegu. I know this place hella well."

       "So, you always came here?"

       "With a couple friends, yeah. It was quite a walk, but we would come after school and go home after it was dark," he remembered. "Good times, buddy."

        "Who were your friends back then?"

        "Those popular kids."

        "I hated them, you know that?" Jungkook confessed.

       "Why?"

       "They always loved to make fun of the smart kids."

       "Were you one of them?"

       "I think I was more focused on fitting in than being smart."

       "Doesn't seem like that now," Jungkook chuckled.

       "I guess it doesn't, eh?" He laughed, acknowledging his weird presence every time he steps into a room. Returning to reality, Tae spotted the bakery. "The bakery is right up there. Let me just hop in for a second, say hi to some people I know."

       "From your high school days?" Jungkook teased.

       "Yup. I won't grab anything, I promise. I'll be quick, too."

       "Alright. Do you want me to come with or should I wait outside?"

       "You can wait outside if you want."

       "Alright. Since it's a private thing, I'll wait outside," he said respectfully.

       "Okay. Thanks, Jungkook." Their fingers laced around each others' for what felt like the millionth time in the world. Within a moment, Tae had to let go of Jungkook, jogging into the bakery which heavenly scents were wafting from. In 3 minutes, he came back out, holding nothing just as he had promised. "See? Told you I wouldn't buy anything," he said as he smiled.

       "Alright, alright. Where are you taking me for this 'surprise' that you're talking about."

       "Once we get closer, you'll know." Jungkook nodded. As they continued to walk, they held hands as they got weird stares from people.

       "Hey, Tae?"

       "Yeah?"

       "Aren't you... you know..."

       "Am I what?"

       "Aren't you embarrassed to be around me?"

       "Why would I be?"

       "We're getting all these stares from people. Doesn't that make you uncomfortable-embarrassed?"

       "How could I be embarrassed when the person I love the most in the whole wide world is holding my hand?

       "Because everyone is staring at us. You know how same sex relationships aren't really supported here."

       "Yeah, I know. But who cares? First of all, a world wide star, a world wide idol, told us never to be embarrassed. Never to be afraid of what other people give us because you know what they're gonna give us? Crap. They're going to say 'you can't date him' and 'you can't love him' and 'what the hell is wrong with you? Do you realize that you're socially unaccepted now?' But they're wrong. Everyone who is giving us stares, everyone that's whispering to another person about us, they're wrong. Because hell, yeah, I can date you. I can love you. I could be socially unaccepted, but who cares what people say about us? I couldn't care less because as long as I'm with you, I'm the happiest man in the world."

       "Wow, Tae. I-I didn't know you felt this strongly about our relationship."

       "Didn't GD say that we can't be embarrassed? Let's live up to that, Kookie. Let's be the best couple in the world and never, ever be embarrassed. Ok?"

       "Challenge accepted, world. Challenge accepted."

       "Alright. Well, now that that happened, we're getting closer to the place where I wanted to take you. So close your eyes and don't open them until I say so."

       "What?! Babe, that's insane!"

       "No, it's not. Hey, I survived it, right? So surely you can too."

       "Yeah, you survived it. In a damn hotel. We're out in public!"

       "Never be embarrassed."

       "I'm not."

       "Then close your eyes! Here," Tae put his arm around Jungkook's waist, pulling him towards his body. "I promise I won't let go." Jungkook's face turned a bright red color, embarrassed already. They walked towards the body of water that was near the center of Daegu. 

       "Tae, where are you-whoa!" he tripped, almost falling over.

       "Hey, hey, hey," Tae caught him. "I got you, don't worry." He steadied himself again, arm around Tae unlike before.

       "Are we almost there? I'd rather not fall over and die," he joked. Tae laughed.

       "Yeah, we're almost there." A couple seconds later, they arrived at the lake.

       "Alright, open your eyes." His eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the light. Tae had brought him to the most beautiful spot that anyone could be at the lake. The first thing Jungkook saw was Tae, smiling at him.

       "Where are we?" Tae stepped aside, letting him see the full view of the lake. His eyes widened as he gaped at the romantic view. Turning to Tae, he smiled. "Where is this?"

       "It's a place I always went to when I was sad. I would listen to music and just eat here. It calmed me down a lot."

       "Your parents let you do so much alone."

       "Really?"

       "Well, considering you live an hour drive away..."

       "Yeah, I guess. Oh yeah.." He tossed his backpack to the front of him, pulling out a huge blanket to lie on. Jungkook stood aside and watched, astonished. Next, he pulled out each of the pastries that he bought, including bread and tarts and a little bit of cake.

       "Kim Taehyung!"

       "What?"

       "You promised me!"

       "I lied," he smiled. Jungkook laughed, punching him and slapping him lightly.

       "You asshole! No, you shouldn't spend that much money fo-"

       "If you don't shut up, I'm eating all of this. I don't care what you say. You deserve every single thing that you get." Jungkook stayed silent, thinking in his own cloud. "Come on," Tae took his hand and led him to sit down. "Let's eat," he smiled again.

       "I know that I say this a whole lot, but... you know that I love you a lot, right?"

       "Yeah. I know. And you should know that I love you too. Now, come on. It's still warm." They ate each of the pastries one by one and by the end, they were licking their fingers, wishing they could eat it again.

       "Mm.." Jungkook savored, leaning back into Tae.

       "Enjoyed it?"

       "Hell yeah. Thank you, by the way."

       "Anything for my little booper dooper!"

       "Booper dooper?"

       "Never mind..." The two of them laid there, enjoying both the view and the presence.

       "Hey, Tae?"

       "Yeah?"

       "Do you want to stay here or go back?"

        "I think we should stay here. It's nice here."

       "Okay, cool... also, were your parents cool with almost everything you did?"

        "Kinda... you?"

        "Not really. My brother came with me for practically everything that I did. Legit, everything."

        "Did your mom just not trust you or...?"

        "She thought I wouldn't be safe, so she always called my brother to come with me." Tae nodded in acknowledgement.

        "Welp, I guess I'm almost like your older brother now."

        "Why?"

        "Because I'll never leave your side." Jungkook shook his head, smiling while Tae leaned in and kissed him passionately on the lips. Eyes closed, their hands met each other as they fell into each other's company. Soon enough, it was over and back to reality. Without saying a word, They sat by the lake and watched as the calm, small waves crashed against the rocks against the sides. Soon, Jungkook's phone vibrated against his thigh. He sat up, grabbing it out of his jeans and answering it.

        "Yoboseo?"

        "Jungkook-ah?" It was the voice of someone who they obviously knew well.

        "Namjoon-hyung?!"

        "Hi." Tae's eyes widened as his heart raced.

        "Hey... Why are you calling?" Tae was cursing over and over again in his head, scared out of his skin.

        "Where are you guys? Jimin told us you were on a promotion trip."

        "Yeah, we are."

        "Look, if you tell me exactly where you are right now and why, I promise that I won't tell anyone." Tae and Jungkook looked each other in the eye, speaking through eye communication. They decided to trust him.

        "Ok, you know that we trust you, right hyung?"

        "Yeah, I know. And you have absolutely no reason not to trust me."

        "Right. But if you promise not to tell someone and we get a call from the manager or someone from the company, we're quitting."

        "Wait, what?" he asked, shocked.

        "If we can't trust you, we can't trust anyone. I don't believe that we can stay if we can't trust you guys." There was silence on the other side. The intelligent rapper was clearly thinking. He sighed loudly, combing his hair back.

        "Fine. Yeah, I understand."

        "Okay.." Jungkook took a deep breath before starting to explain. "We're in Daegu."

        "Suga-hyung and Taehyung's hometown?"

        "No, the one on Mars, Yes, the one we're from," Tae said sarcastically.

        "We just wanted to spend some time alone, okay?"

        "Are you guys even promoting at all?" He sounded angry.

        "Yeah, we did twice, but that's about it. Look, we're just here to take a little break."

        "Okay, a couple questions. One, when will you be back? Two, what are you guys doing? Three, does anyone else know?"

        "We'll be back in about a week. Right now, we're just chilling. And yeah, Jimin-hyung knows," Tae confessed.

        "That little..."

        "Hey!" Tae started, almost shouting. "Don't you dare blame him. Don't yell at him, don't scold him, nothing. I swear to God that I will find out and I will quit because this is not his fault. If anyone, it's ours. Do not drag anyone else into this," he said threateningly.

        "Jesus. I got it, I'll keep my trap shut."

        "Anything else you need?"

        "No. But come back soon, okay? We miss you here."

        "Alright, we got it, hyung." They hung up the phone after their goodbyes.

        "Hyung, I think we should go."

        "Alright. It's getting a little bit late anyways." They packed up the blanket since there was absolutely no food leftover and started to walk back. They agreed to grab noodles on the way back for their dinner. Jungkook ordered jajangmyeon and Tae ordered ramen, switching from what they had a couple days ago.

        Once they got back to the hotel, it was about 6 PM since they stayed at the lake for around 2 hours. Jungkook went to go shower as Tae turned on the TV and texting Jimin.

Tae:

hey, whatchya doin?

ChimChim:

nothing much, why?

Tae:

namjoon hyung didnt yell at you, did he?

ChimChim:

no...

y would he?

Tae:

well, we told him where we were today.

where we actually were..

please dont be mad

:(((

ChimChim:

i'm not mad

how did he respond?

Tae:

he seemed a little pissed

but we toldhim that if he tells the company

we quit.

ChimChim:

woah

wait wait wait

what if he actually does tell the company?

are you actually gonna quit?

Tae:

maybe, maybe not.

if he tells, 

i'll probably get fired anyways... 

so yeah.

ChimChim:

well

you need to promise me something

Tae:

and you need to promise me something.

don't let namjoon-hyung yell at you

promise me that

please..

ChimChim:

yeah, 

i promise

but you have to promise you won't quit if i'm still there.

Tae:

wouldn't dream of it. hyung.

i really do love you.

ChimChim:

and i love you too.

look

i gtg, but ttyl?

Tae:

yup. 

kookie just got out of the shower, so i gtg too

bye!

       As he turned off his phone, he went to go shower as Jungkook sat and watched TV. When he came out, the younger boy was scrolling through his Twitter feed again, looking at all the ships of 'TaeKook'

        "What are you doing?"Tae walked up to him. This time, he didn't hide it and proudly showed his phone to Tae.

        "Look at all these cute ships of us."

        "I know," he threw his head back as a dramatic effect. "It's fate." Jungkook laughed at the idiot, claiming that he was tired and wanted to go to bed.

        To be honest, both of them were dead tired after a long, long walk. But they decided to tweet out before they slept, too grateful towards their fans not to. Plus, in Seoul, they always would Tweet out before they went to sleep. Both in their robes, they took a selfie and posted it along with the caption "good night, we love you, army". They hit the lights and went to sleep after the longest day they've had so far in Daegu.

       But neither of them would've had it any other way.


	16. Concert Time, Baby!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook find out that they're going to be seeing 5 very special people tonight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! New chapter! Oh hey look, I'm early for once. Lol.  
> A couple short things. First and definitely foremost, thank you to everyone who has dealt with my crappy writing until now or just anyone that reads any part of the story. I really really genuinely hope that you guys are all enjoying it.  
> Secondly, this story is ending soon! I know, I'm sad too. My first actual public piece of work. But, good news, I am working on another one. This one will be a YoonMin one! I will take requests if you'd like to drop a comment in! Thank you guys so much! You guys always make my day.

When Tae woke up the next day, there was no sunlight out. He shifted to face the clock, his eyes focusing as he looked at the clock. 4:32 AM. _4 freaking 32?_ he thought. _Dammit._ He had a feeling Jungkook wouldn't wake up for the next 2 hours at least, so he tossed and turned and tossed and turned until he finally gave up, coming to the conclusion that he can't fall asleep. Reluctantly and quietly, he swung his feet over the side of the bed, landing them inside of his shoes. He rubbed his messy hair as he went to go shower. He realized that he was about to fall asleep again, so after he changed, he grabbed his room key and his phone to go downstairs and get coffee. He was filling up his cup when a stranger tapped his shoulder.

       "Hey..." he said.

       "Who are you?"

       "Where's Jungkook-ssi?" a familiar voice asked.

       "Oh! GD-sunbaenim!" A smile grew across both faces as they greeted each other. "Jungkook's asleep."

        "Aish... Does he usually wake up late?" they joked.

        "Eh... not really. He usually wakes up before me," Tae explained. They grabbed a table nearby to talk.

        "So, why are you up so early?" Tae asked.

        "Could ask you the same question, Taehyung."

        "I couldn't sleep properly."

        "You've been eating alright?"

        "Um, yeah," Tae answered reluctantly.

        "Just making sure because that could lead to not sleeping well. Looks like Jungkook's alright though considering he's not up at.." he checked his watched quickly. "5:23," he laughed.

        "I just didn't sleep well, that's all."

        "Ah..." he said sympathetically.

        "So.." The younger boy took a sip from his coffee. "Why are you up so early?"

        "I have a concert in Daegu a little later today. Of course, it's in the evening, but we have to do a dress rehearsal and everything. We're actually supposed to meet down here at 6 and like you, the rest of my roommates are asleep so I grabbed some coffee," he explained.

        "Oh, I didn't know that you had a concert this evening! Well, be sure to have fun."

        "No good luck?"

        "You don't need it," Tae assured.

        "Okay.. well, thanks. I'll be sure to pass it onto the rest of the band."

        "Jungkook will probably die to know that you're here and not be able to go to your concert."

        "Oh, you guys are in _that_ kind of predicament?"

       "Yeah, I guess so. Is this what fans feel like when they book tickets to our concert?"

       "Apparently. But did you see EXO's concert tickets? Holy crap, man."

       "I know. It was all over the news. EXO-L's are all over this. Who can even get tickets in 0.4 seconds?"

        "It's awesome, though. But if you really want to go to our concert that bad," he reached into the pocket of his ripped skinny jeans and pulled out two, long pieces of paper. "Then here you go." He handed it to Tae. The younger boy looked at it, curious and gaping when he finally realized what it was.

        "Oh my god..." he exclaimed. "Oh my freaking god!!!" The two pieces of paper were two tickets to front balcony seats to BIGBANG's concert. He looked up and smiled at the older boy. "Do you know how excited Jungkook will be to be able to go?" he said as he got up to give GD a big hug. "I promise, we'll pay you back." The older boy sat back in his chair, relaxing.

        "No need. You guys are good friends of ours. Consider it a gift," he reassured.

        "Wha-I can't do that..."

        "Sure you can."

        "How much did you have to pay for these?"

        "Nothing... The company paid me, actually," he laughed. "I'm in BIGBANG, remember? I simply asked them to save two front seat spots to our show and voila. Two front balcony tickets."

        "Are you serious? I can't... No. We have to pay you back somehow."

        "Treat me to dinner after the show. I'll have my face mask and everything, yeah?"

        "Fair enough. But you have to buy whatever you can. Then I'll feel even."

        "Alright." Right as he said that, the other 4 members of BIGBANG stepped off the elevator. "Well, looks like I gotta go, buddy. Meet me backstage after the show, okay? I'll write VIP and sign my name on the tickets." He held his hand out as a gesture towards Tae. He handed GD the two tickets as he pulled out a pen and signed his name.

        "Thank you, so much. I really can't thank you enough."

       "No need," they hugged again. "See you at the show?"

        "You can freaking count on it. Thank you, by the way. What you said to Jungkook the other night really hit him. It stuck with him and me."

        "No problem. We really shouldn't judge people like that. Accepting is the biggest problem in this world and I think you guys are perfect together. Don't be embarrassed because of a couple dirty looks because I love you guys being together." As they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, Tae went back upstairs to check if Jungkook was up yet. When he unlocked the door, the lights were on and the shower was on. He smiled as he went to go turn on the TV and watch some news. When Jungkook came out into the main room, he jumped when he saw a random man sitting on the bed. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was his bandmate.

        "Oh geez... you scared the crap out of me."

        "Sorry," he said as he smiled. "I was downstairs grabbing some coffee."

        "Ah, okay."

        "How long have you been up?"

        "About half an hour," he responded as he pulled on his white t-shirt.

        "After you dress, I want to talk to you about something."

        "Alright. Hold on." He put on his ripped jeans and his Timberlands as he sat down next to Tae. "Yeah. What's up?"

        "So, while I was downstairs, I ran into someone."

        "Oh, really?" he turned his head in curiosity. "Who?"

        "GD-sunbaenim."

        "Oh, yeah. I forgot that he's staying here too."

        "Yeah. You know, he has a concert today with BIGBANG here, in Daegu."

        "Oh! Dang, I didn't know that. I would've grabbed tickets for us."

        "Yeah, tickets are sold out."

        "I know. Their tickets sell out damn fast." Tae reached into his pocket where the two tickets were and handed them to Jungkook. "But I managed to get some for you." Jungkook took the tickets, just as Tae did when GD handed them to him. And he had the same reaction, too.

        "Holy freaking crap..." A wide grin reached Tae's face.

        "Yup."

        "Oh my God... Are you serious?"

        "100% serious."

        "Holy crap!!!" Excitement lit up on his face as he read what the tickets said, also realizing that he has G-Dragon's very on signature on the ticket. "I thought.. But you said- we just..." He stuttered with ecstasy.

         "We just said the tickets were sold out, I know, I know. But didn't I say that I saw GD down there?"

        "Wait.." It finally clicked in his head. "He got us tickets?!" Tae nodded. "Dude, we have to pay him back!"

        "Relax. I already promised him dinner after the show. We're gonna go grab something hella fancy."

       "Are you sure?"

        "100% sure. Concert's at 8, but doors open at 7:30. What do you want to do until then?"

        "Do you just wanna hang out here?"

        "I didn't really have any plans. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even plan to go to their concert before today," he explained.

         "Yeah, well neither did I."

         "Oh, by the way, he wanted us to meet him backstage."

         "Seriously?"

         "Yeah, seriously."

          "Any fan would die for that."

          "Yeah, he signed our tickets so that we would get access."

          "Ah, it's so damn awesome..." he said, still in awe.

          "How 'bout we go exercise, eh? We'll do a challenge. Whoever knows more girl group songs treats the other to ice cream," Tae bets.

          "Bad idea, Tae. Bad freaking idea."

          "What, you don't believe that I can beat you?"

          "I know you can't beat me," Jungkook smiled. "But let's grab some breakfast first and then we can prove your little bet." They agreed on eating first and then they hit the gym. When they got down there, it was around 9 AM.

         "What song first?"

         "You pick, Kookie."

         "Do you realize how much I love that nickname?" he said as he scrolled through songs.

         "Really?"

         "Yeah. It's the cutest nickname I've ever heard for anyone. I guess I'm lucky my name is Jungkook."

         "What, you think it's better than bae?" Tae asked as his long arms wrapped around his boyfriend's waist.

         "Mm, both are cute." He tried to focus on choosing one of the hundreds of girl group songs on his phone, but the older boy started to kiss his neck and cheek.

         "Oh yeah? Which one do you like more?"

         "I think I'd prefer Kookie," he confessed.

         "Why Kookie?"

        "Because you're the one that made it up. Because 'bae' is so generic. Because it's special now and you can use it on TV and we have an excuse."

        "Oh yeah?" He left a trail of kisses down his neck. Right as his hands we down to Jungkook's waist, the music turned on and Cheer Up played through the speakers.

        "Bet's on, boyfriend." He smirked. "Cutest and most accurate person wins. Best out of 3."

        "You're on, Kookie." They decided to do it at the same time in front of the mirror so Tae could watch Jungkook and Jungkook could watch Tae. The ended up dancing to Cheer Up by TWICE, L.I.E by EXID, and Something by Girls' Day which, by the way, Tae found unfair considering Jungkook knew the entire dance to this song. Jungkook won, knowing the dance perfectly to Cheer Up and Something. Once they finished, they exercised, dancing to a various number of songs before completing their bet and going out for ice cream.

         "That was so not fair," Tae stated his opinion.

        "That was fair and square, excuse me." He laughed.

        "You've learned the dance to Something and Cheer Up."

        "And you haven't. That's fair enough." Tae fake pouted, looking all cute. "Awee," Jungkook laughed and pinched his cheeks. "Why you so cute??"

        "Why you so cheater?" He said as he picked Jungkook up by the waist, hoisting him up onto his shoulders.

        "Tae!!" Jungkook screamed happily. "No, put me down!"

         "Nope. I'm gonna carry you all the way to the ice cream parlor and buy you ice cream before I put you down."

         "No! I'm gonna fall!"

         "I won't let go of you."

         "Then I'll make you let go of me."

         "Don't do that, Kookie. You're gonna get hurt."

         "Then let me down!"

         "If I let you down, we have to hold hands all the way to the ice cream parlor," he compromised.

         "Fine, fine. I just don't wanna fall." Tae lowered Jungkooked down onto his feet as the intertwined fingers and kissed.

         "I wouldn't have let you fall."

         "Your hands could've slipped or something, you wouldn't know."

         "I wouldn't let a beautiful face like yours get damaged," he joked around.

         "Aish..." he exclaimed, embarrassed. Meanwhile, Tae glanced at his phone to check time.

         "Hey, it's 12:30. You wanna go eat while we're at it?"

         "Sure, why not? Any good recommendations, my good sir?"

         "Why yes, there is a spectacular dumpling house right next to the ice cream parlor. Shall we go?"

         "I'd be delighted." They giggled at how silly they sounded before strolling off to go find this dumping house.

         "So... do you have any great memories from here?"

         "I'd almost say I have too many, Kookie."

         "Why?"

         "I always did a lot around here. I hit the arcade a lot after school and played tennis and all that."

         "Did you and Yoongi-hyung go to the same school?"

         "Oh, of course not. We're years apart, but we also lived very far apart. I wasn't really that smart in school, though."

         "Did you do well?"

         "I got A's and B's, so I ended up okay. But never enough to go to like, Seoul University, you know?"

         "Yeah. Only Namjoon-hyung is that smart."

         "I don't understand how he can be the top 1% of South Korea and still not have any dreams."

         "I know..."

         "Well, what about you? Did you have dreams and stuff?"

         "Well, not really. You already know about this, but I wanted to become an artist. I guess in a way, I did, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Not that I'm complaining, though. I love what I do."

          "What kind of artist did you want to become?"

          "A drawer." Tae nodded his head.

          "But, I mean again, I can't complain. I love to be on stage and I love our fans and just everything about it. It's the best feeling in the world. I feel like I'm finally giving back, you know?"

          "Of course I know." They reached the restaurant 5 minutes after and they sat down at a table for two, ordering their drinks and dumplings (because it's a dumpling house) along with noodles and fish. They talked about their backstory, mostly Tae though. The food came not much later, just around 10 minutes. As they chowed down to eat, they found that they finished just as quickly as they had started.

          "Damn, we can eat," Jungkook noticed.

          "I know... It's kinda bad."

          "Is it okay, though?"

          "Eh... we should probably cut back."

          "Mm, I think it's alright for now."

          "I mean, we are kinda working out all day. Just because we're in Daegu, we're eating a little more than we usually do, so it's alright." Jungkook agreed as they payed for the check and left the restaurant. The maknae insisted on going shopping where they were since he had never been to that part of Daegu before, but Tae resisted.

         "Come on, Tae. I've never been here before."

         "But I have..."

         "At least let me go to a merch store and pick up a BIGBANG lightstick."

         "Don't you already have one back in Seoul?" Tae remembered.

        "Yeah, but like you said, back in Seoul. We're in Daegu. And GD is going to be looking for us. That's all I want. Come on, please??" Jungkook pleaded. But alas, Tae could not resisted the cuteness being forced upon him and agreed to go. With that, they stopped by a merch store nearby and, as promised, all Jungkook did was buy a light stick, since he had a shirt back in his luggage somewhere.

         "You good?"

         "Yup." They ended up grabbing a few snacks there later on and shopping for a couple things. They looked at a lot of clothes, but didn't really get any and Tae was okay with that since he didn't want to be spending any more money than they already had.

         Before they knew it, the time had come for the show to start. They quickly went back to the hotel and changed before walking down to the performance theater that the concert was going to be in and waiting in line like everybody else. Surprisingly enough, nobody recognized them with their masks on and they were grateful for that. Wouldn't want to ruin a friend's spotlight, now would you? Everybody filed into their seats and when they showed the security guard their tickets, his eyes widened, realizing who they were.

        "Follow me," he ordered. They went up stairs to the balcony and stood, waiting for the show to start.

         "Thank you," Jungkook and Tae said politely, bowing to him. He bowed back.

         "You guys are Jungkook and Taehyung-ssi, right?" The two froze, shocked that he knew who they were.

         "Ne," they answered.

         "Just in case you guys forgot, GD-ssi specifically told me to remind you to hold onto your tickets if you're going to meet him backstage after the show."

         "Ah, ne. Thank you for reminding us. Please let him know that we will be there shortly after people start to leave," Tae told him. He bowed slightly, acknowledging their request.

             About 20 minutes after he left, the lights shut off and the show finally started. The first song that they sang was an older song, Fantastic Baby. Within the first couple seconds of the song, GD was already subtly looking for them in the balcony. It didn't take long before he found them, his eyes lighting up with excitement as he started to jump around, getting the general admission crowd hyped up. Even in their own little space, Jungkook and Tae started to dance along to the song and jumped up and down. To get them used to the atmosphere of a concert, right after Fantastic Baby was Bang Bang Bang. Everybody was pumping their arms and fists in the air, jamming out to the beat. They then decided that it was a good time for water, so they took a break and talked to the fans.

        "How is everyone doing this evening?!" T.O.P shouted into the microphone. The crowd started to cheer loudly. "Are you guys ready for the best night of your lives!!!" V.I.Ps started to cheer again, but not as loud as T.O.P wanted. "I said, 'are you guys ready for the best night of your lives?" They cheered even louder and the theater was filled with noise. "Hello, everyone. I'm T.O.P of BIGBANG."

         "I'm G-Dragon!" He waved to the fans and they waved back.

         "I'm Taeyang."

         "I'm Seungri!"

         "And I'm Daesung!"

         "It's an honor to be here tonight, performing in front of all you amazing fans. Are you ready to make some noise!" The crowd cheered again and as the band smiled and the lights dimmed. When the lights came back on, only one person was on stage: G-Dragon. Of course, the song they were performing? Bae Bae. As soon as GD started his rap, Jungkook went wild and started to fanchant and cheer. The song passed onto the other members and they sang their hearts out as the fans swayed their light sticks side to side. To carry on the mood, they sang Day by Day afterwards. During this son, Tae took the initiative to stand behind Jungkook, placing his arms around the younger boy's waist. Jungkook looked behind him.

           "Tae! What're you doing?"

           "Flirting with you at a BIGBANG concert." He threw his head back and laughed at how ridiculous his boyfriend sounded and let it all happen. The older boy started to softly sing into his ear, singing harmony with the band. They decided to perform one more slow song, which happened to be Blue. Tae continued his cute flirting session with Jungkook until the song was over. After they had yet another talk with the fans, which they have about 5 of them, they continued to sing. This is what the concert agenda looked like:

 

1\. Fantastic Baby

2\. Bang Bang Bang

(talk)

3\. Bae Bae

4\. Day by Day

5\. Blue

(talk)

6\. We Like 2 Party

7\. Sober

(talk)

8\. Zutter (GD and T.O.P)

9\. Good Boy

(talk)

10\. Love Song

11\. Sunset Glow

12\. This Love

(talk)

Encore. Last Farewell

          All throughout the concert, GD kept giving them glares and smiles, clearly happy how their relationship is working out. After their encore, the fans cheered for another encore and rearranged their seats to say "V.I.P". BIGBANG came back out with one last song, Let's Not Fall in Love. It was meant to be a metaphor to the fans, telling them not to fall in love with BIGBANG yet since they'll be out with more songs soon. The fans cheered their names and the song lyrics as they sang and rapped passionately. Once the song was over, GD gave them one last glare to come backstage after everyone left. The lights turned off and everyone started to pile out. The main floor got out much quicker, considering they were all standing. The seated fans went out a little slower. They decided to take the easy way,  going down to the main floor and jumping onto the giant stage instead of going through the back doors. As soon as the two jumped onstage, they remembered the feeling of performing for fans.

          "I miss this, Kookie. I know it hasn't been long but... I do miss this."

          "I know, babe. I miss this too. Come on. We have a dinner to pay for," Jungkook reminded him. They stood there for another minute before going backstage, immediately seeing the sweat-drenched band. GD noticed them too.

          "Hey~! What's up, guys? Did you like the show?" he greeted.

          "Hell, yeah. We loved it! You guys did damn amazing, like always!"

          "Aw, thanks." They nodded. "Hey, let me go change, then we can grab dinner, alright?"

          "Yeah, absolutely." They promised to wait for him there. He got changed in 5 minutes and quickly came out to greet them again.

          "Alright.. Well, let's go eat!" They started to walk out. "Are you guys sure about this?"

          "We're positive. You let us see your sold out concert. Let us repay you." He finally let it go and they walked down to another noodle shop down the street.

           "What should I order?"

           "Anything you want."

           "I'm kinda hungry so... Dumplings, ramen, and bubble tea?" They agreed to share the dumplings and each order a ramen. GD and Jungkook got beef flavored while Tae got a spicy one. They all ordered a milk tea bubble tea with tapioca. Their order came about 15 minutes later.

           "So, I assume your promoting has gone well?" GD asked.

           "Yeah, it's been going good," they half lied. "Yours looks to be doing great." The BIGBANG member laughed, amused.

           "I saw your band's picture on the giant billboard in the center of Daegu." The two blushed.

           "I think they were mistaken," Jungkook confessed.

           "I don't think they were mistaken. I think you absolutely deserve to be up there. With your recent MVs hitting high millions of views and your syncronized dance moves, you definitely deserve to be up there," he said as they ate.

           "I don't know, hyung."

           "You do know, Taehyung. I know you guys have been working hard and you guys will work even harder in the future. I know it." They thanked him for the kind words and finished eating their delicious meals. Before they knew it, they were saying goodbye to now one of their good friends.

           "I'm glad I got to meet you guys here," GD said.

           "And we're glad we got to meet you too."

           "Thank you for inviting us to your concert, hyung. It was seriously nice of you," Jungkook said.

           "Thank you for the dinner guys." They hugged each other and GD checked the time on his watch. "You guys should go. You're probably tired. Thank you for everything. And don't forget: never be embarrassed." He smiled as he hugged Jungkook and then Tae. "I saw what you guys were doing up there when we were singing Haru Haru," he confessed as he hugged the older boy. Tae blushed. "Continue doing that. Don't lose that, okay? It's one of the things that'll keep this relationship an amazing experience." He pulled back as he said goodbye one last time and the BTS boys started to walk back to the hotel. They talked the entire way back, but not really at the room. They were exhausted. It was around 10:30 when Jungkook hopped into the shower as Tae flopped onto the bed, not even willing to turn on the TV. As soon as Jungkook was done, Tae was in and out of there in 20 minutes. They decided not to do anything the next day as they shut off the lights and went to sleep. That night, Jungkook dreamed of going on stage to sing with BIGBANG and the rest of BTS at a concert and he promised himself and his band members that soon, his dream will come true.

 


	17. It's On, Boyfriend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook play at an arcade and simply hang out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why am I so bad at this?  
> I'm super sorry for uploading late again. I have absolutely no excuse and every one of you deserves so much better. Mianhae... But I'm out with a new chapter, so here you go! There are only 3-5 chapters left of the story, but I'm done with the first chapter of my next story so look out for that one! Thanks so much for reading guys. You guys mean the world to me.

The next day, Jungkook woke up a little sore and with hardly any voice. He immediately got out of bed and drank some water along with some vitamins that he had brought onto the trip with him. A little panicked, he got into the shower, closing the door and hoping that the steam might help him voice a little. Once he got out, he remembered what J-Hope and Jin told him back when they were in L.A.

      ("It'll help, I swear." J-hope promised.

       "No, it won't," Jungkook rasped out, losing his voice.

       "We had an instructor and he said that this will help. Just drink some anyways," Jin ordered, forcing a glass of water mixed with honey into his hand.

       "Dammit. Fine, whatever." He took the glass and drank it slowly, making a weird face when it touched his throat.

       "Well?" J-hope anticipated.

       "Yeah," he croaked out a little louder now, "it helped.")

       The only problem was that he didn't have any honey. He decided to go down to the lobby and see if they had any. Luckily, breakfast was happening there and people put honey on their waffles, so he asked if he could take some up to his room and the service employees happily agreed. Thanking them, he left with a cup of honey. When he got back into his room, Tae was already up and showered. He was drying his hair in the bedroom/living room.

        "Hey! What's up, Kookie?" he asked as he turned the hair drier off. Honestly, Jungkook thought he looked better with half dried hair.

        "Nothing," he whispered.

        "What's wrong?" Jungkook held up a finger and mixed the honey with the water. Before answering, he drank a cup and set it down.

       "So much better."

       "What happened?" Tae asked worriedly.

       "Too much screaming last night," he told him, laughing and massaging his shoulders. Tae threw his head back and laughed. 

       "Come here," he chuckled. Jungkook sat right in front of Tae, settling himself in comfortably. Unexpectedly, the older boy started to rub his shoulders. "You sore too?"

        "Yeah. My arms are kinda tired," he confessed. Tae made sure to get all of his arm along with his shoulders. After about 5 minutes, Jungkook noticed something. It looked like Tae had a bruise on his arm.

       "You okay?" Jungkook asked.

       "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

       "I see that bruise ony our arm, Kim Taehyung. What happened?"

       "Nothing. It's nothing," he reassured.

       "Hey," Jungkook turned to face him. "I'm worried about you. Tell me what's up." He took Tae's hand into his own and looked into his eyes. Tae finally gave up.

       "I'm okay. I promise. I just bumped into the railing last night by accident."

       "Let me see it." Tae lifted his arm to let Jungkook see the bruise. It wasn't too bad, but it was still black and blue. Jungkook got up, going to his luggage.

       "What're you doing?" Tae asked, curious. The maknae didn't say a word as he reached in to grab a first aid kit out. "Jungkook..." He got an ice pack out and started to move it around, 'activating' the ice. He put it on Tae's arm and held it there. The moment it touched the older boy's skin, he flinched. Jungkook looked up, meeting a pained expression.

       "Aish.." Tae exclaimed.

       "Shh, it's okay." He kissed Tae on the cheek to calm him down.

       "Keep this here for 10 minutes, okay?"

       "How do...why... what?"

       "It should help. I know it hurts and I know it's not an open wound, but we still need to treat it."

       "Thanks, babe," he said as he leaned in for a kiss. They sat together and Jungkook went to go turn on the TV. Nothing that interesting was on, so they ended up just talking through most of the stuff.

       "Hey, what do you want to do today?"

       "Oh yeah. We didn't have much of a plan, did we?"

       "No, not really."

       "Do you wanna just... waste the day away?" Jungkook stared at him with wide eyes. "No, that's not what I meant! I meant do you just wanna, you know, go and play some video games?"

       "At an arcade or...?"

       "Yeah!"

       "Alright, let me just grab some stuff." When he went to go get his wallet, however, it didn't have much money in it. The rest of it was in the luggage that he had just locked.

       "Hey, Tae?"

       "Yeah?"

       "Do you happen to have some extra money?"

       "Um," he opened his wallet to check. "Yeah, there's a lot in here," he said, surprised.

       "Do you mind paying for part of my games?" Tae looked up, standing as he wrapped his arms around his waist.

       "Anything for my boyfriend," he kissed him. As they got ready, they decided to grab something to eat before heading out. Instead of going to some restaurant, they just simply went to the hotel breakfast downstairs. Tae had a bagel and milk and Jungkook had some bread and milk. As soon as they finished, they were on their way. They hopped into the car before Jungkook asked a question.

       "Hyung?"

       "Yeah?"

       "Can I try driving?"

       "Sure, Just.. around this parking lot, alright?"

       "Yeah!" They switched seats and Tae went through step by step instructions.

       "Alright, put your foot on the gas pedal. Nope, you only use one foot for both pedals. Okay, adjust stuff if you need to. Are you good? Okay-"

       "Tae? Yeah, I know how to drive. I got this." Tae nodded his head confidently and let Jungkook do his thing. He pulled out of the parking space carefully, turning left immediately after. Smiling the entire time, he slightly turned the wheel to make a slight left around the hotel. Once they made a complete circle, the switched places again.

       "Looks like you're not half bad, Kookie."

       "Thank you. I'm trying to get my drivers license soon."

       "Well, I realized." Jungkook smiled. "Alright, let's go!" Tae started to drive down to an arcade that he used to after school all the time with his brother and friends. Once they got there, Tae immediately checked his wallet, counting the amount of cash that he had in it.

       "20,000..40,000...70,000 won. So, we can both take 30,000." He handed 30,000 won to Jungkook. He nodded his head and the two of them went in together, hand in hand. As soon as they got inside, they heard their song, I Need U, playing. Obviously, they had their face masks on so they wouldn't be noticed in public, but both of their eyes opened immediately. As people were playing games, they were singing along to the chorus, dancing as they played.

       "Holy freaking crap.." Tae exclaimed.

       "I know!"

       "That's our song!"

       "I know!" As they put money into the machine, they saw a group of fangirls walking by. They decided that it was the best thing to do to surprise them, so they started to dance as they walked by.

       I need u girl, wae honja saranghago honjasoman ibyeolhae?

       I need u girl, wae 

       The girls actually joined into the dance, executing the moves quite well and singing along. Once the song was done, they bowed to each other and parted their ways.

       "Do our face masks actually work that well?" Tae laughed.

       "I guess," Jungkook smiled. Paying no further mind to the girls, they went and bought their coins, which happened to be 100 coins for each person. Looking at their heavy cups, they grinned at each other and headed for the games. The first thing Jungkook wanted to do was Pac Man -  an old favorite.

       "If I win this, you have to buy me our next meal."

       "No! Jungkook! I already bought you ice cream the other day!"

       "Hey, you lost a bet, fair and square," he argued. Tae had been around 2 years longer than Jungkook (and apparently ate 3,160 more bowls of rice than he had), so he took the challenge.

       "Fine. Same rules apply for me: if I win, you buy the meal." Jungkook smirked, but the two of them each thought that they were going to win.

       "It's on, boyfriend." He put two coins into the slot and the game started playing it's original music. Jungkook put his hand on the buttons and the control, ready for the game to officially start. As soon as it did, he was off and running to each corner of the screen, collecting all of the pellets that he could. He went level by level and it seemed like he wouldn't ever stop. Right as Tae started to get worried that he would lose, Pac Man got eaten by a ghost.

       "Damn," he exclaimed.

       "You're screwed, man," Tae laughed.

       "You try. Wait," he pushed Tae aside slightly for a second. "Alright, I got to level 16. See what you can do, _babe_ ," he said, emphasizing the last word for effect. Tae smiled and went up to the machine, shoving two coins into the slot like Jungkook did.

       "Watch and learn, amateur." The game begun and like Jungkook, he was already running around the screen, collecting all the pellets in less than a minute. It moved onto the next level and the next and soon enough, he was on level 16.

       "Crap," Jungkook muttered. Within a minute and a half, all of the pellets were eaten and all of the ghosts had been eaten at least once. He was onto level 17 within 15 minutes of playing. That's not impressive, you say? He hasn't died once as well. Jungkook's eyes widened as he watched his hyung pass 6 more levels perfectly before dying.

       "Shit.." Tae mumbled. 

       "Right, because you only got to level 23. Level. Freaking. 23," Jungkook emphasized. Tae laughed.

       "I'm sorry? You owe me lunch, buddy."

       "I know, just shut up." Tae rushed him to play the motorcycle game when Jungkook lied and said he needed to go to the bathroom.

       "Do you need me to hold your coins here for you?"

       "Yes, mommy," he mocked.

       "Oh, piss off." Jungkook cracked a grin as he walked away. The thing was he wasn't going to the bathroom. He was going to go to the crane machine and win his boyfriend a prize.

       "I swear, if this machine craps me over, I'm going to freaking climb in there and grab the prize," he mumbled. Putting 3 coins into the machine this time, the music started. His mind automatically flashbacked to the time Yoongi played the smaller version of the crane machine at the laundromat over in L.A and remembered how he played it. 

       He started to move it forward to the giant teddy bear holding a heart and when he thought it was around the right area, he moved the stick sideways. Once the stick was exactly where it should be, he quickly ran to the side of the crane machine to see if it was correct. Seeing that it was a little bit too forward, he quickly moved it back. Checking time and time again, he waited until the buzzer went off for the crane to actually go down. In anticipation, he watched it grab the stuffed animal and carry it up. To his dismay, it fell due to the vicious jolt at the top of the rise. Pissed off but determined, he entered another 3 coins and did the same thing over and over again.

       It took him 14 tries to finally successfully pick up and drop the teddy bear in the winner hole. Feeling relieved, he grabbed the bear as everyone stared at him in awe. Proudly, he walked back to wear Tae, surprisingly, still was. Turning around, Tae took a quick glance at him and not seeing the stuffed animal.

       "Hey, come join me! The hell did you do in the bathroom? Take a freaking bomb dump?"

       "Yeah. Because it's gonna blow up the place."

       "Come join me!"

       "I'll wait till you finish the game." Once he did finish the game, he was worried that there was something up with Jungkook so he got off the bike and turned around to face him. Immediately, he smiled and went up to give Jungkook a hug after he held it out to him.

       "So much for the damn bathroom, you liar," he said, almost crying.

       "Why are you always crying?" Jungkook laughed.

       "You expect me to not cry when you do something like this?"

       "Yup." Taking off their face masks and going towards a corner, Tae leaned in and kissed Jungkook on the lips sweetly.

       "Thank you... again... for the millionth time," he laughed. The teddy bear made it comfortable to half lean against each other.

       "You're welcome... for the millionth time." Tae smiled and took the teddy bear as he hugged Jungkook and they went to go play some more games. When they were done with all of their coins, they decided to combine all of their tickets to get something gigantic and boy, did they. Both boys continued hitting jackpots the entire day and ended up with 80,516 tickets. They went to the ticket eater and cashed all of it in for a simple receipt stating how many tickets they had. It took them about half an hour, but they finally decided to get the HTC Vive, which cost 80,000 tickets. They then also bought a cute little stuffed dog for Jungkook.

       "You still owe me a treat," Tae said as they walked out of the arcade.

       "Yeah, I guess I do."

       "I'm kidding," he smiled, showing his giant bear. "I already have a giant freaking stuffed bear. Let's split the check, ok?"

       "I'm not going to decline that offer." When they got out, it was around noon, so they went to grab something to eat. It was rice specials again, as simple as that. As they agreed to, they split the check. It wasn't much money, though. Since they bought the Vive, they wanted to try it out, so they hooked it up at their hotel room and downloaded a few games from the hotel computer. Since they were VIP guests at the hotel, they had pretty much everything they wanted in their room.

      "What game do you want to play?"

      "Well, let's download a free game," Tae laughed, acknowledging that they weren't at home in their dorm.

      "Okay, yeah, I agree."Jungkook was very much into games at the time, so he had a Steam account already opened and some games already bought. When he was scrolling through the recommended section with Tae over his shoulder, something caught his eye and he scrolled back up to do a double take.

      "Wait, what, what?" Tae asked, confused.

      "Look at this, babe!" Jungkook circled the mouse over a game. The title was "Work Simulator."

      "Jungkook..." His boyfriend said, very bored. "It seems so boring."

      "But look at the freaking reviews!" Tae dropped his eyes down to the 5 glowing stars on the screen where the rating was. His eyes widened as he realized that 21,563 people rated it and it was at a stunning 4.8 stars. "It can't be that bad, right?"

      "Yeah, yeah. I guess. Yeah, let's get this one." Jungkook clicked the download button since it was free. 

      "Crap," Jungkook muttered.

      "What?"

      "It looks like it's gonna take an hour and a half to download," he explained.

      "Oh God.." Tae sighed. "Alright, let's download it now. It's fine." They let it download and, as if on cue, Jimin decided to call them. Tae picked up right away since he was fooling around on Twitter and using some effects on his camera.

      "Hello?"

      "Hi!" A cheery voice said on the other end.

      "Hyung!" Jungkook turned around from his chair.

      "Hey, how are you guys?"

      "We're great, actually. Just spending some time together at the hotel."

      "What are you guys doin'?

      "Oh, just downloading a game for out new HTC Vive," Tae said nonchalantly. 

      "Oh, yeah we're just-" He paused midsentence, processing what his dongsaengs just said. "Um, what did you just say?"

      "You heard us loud and clear." The two boys couldn't see Jimin, but they knew the exact face he had on: eyes wide, jaw dropped, mind stirring. 

      "What... where... how?!"

      "Let's just say your 95'er and maknae scored some jackpots at the arcade," Tae said, giving Jungkook an evil smile. Jungkook smiled back, holding back laughter.

      "You better bring that thing home and play with me 24 hours straight," Jimin ordered, smiling too.

      "Alright.." They talked about what BTS was doing back in Seoul and they decided to practice together. Hanging up, Tae and Jungkook gave Jimin some time to walk down to their dance studio and they went down to the hotel gym. Half an hour later, they were deciding which song to do.

      "We should do Cheer Up!" Jungkook suggested.

      "What is with you and that damn song?" Jimin laughed in their FaceTime call.

      "It's a good song!" Jungkook defended.

      "Let's do our own songs, ba-" Tae caught his own tongue, fixing his mistake before Jimin could notice. "Jungkook. We have a show." He turned rosy red as he found the songs.

      "Let's do We Are Bulletproof, Baepsae, and I Need U, okay?"

      "Yup." 3 songs and a water break later, they were sweating like crazy and ready to pass out.

      "This is what happens when we go all out," Jungkook panted out.

      "Yup..." Tae agreed. Almost passed out on the floor, all their water was gone and they decided to go back to their room, keeping the FaceTime on to chat, but as they looked at the clock when they were leaving the gym, it looks like they lost track of time. It had already been 2 hours.

      "Tae! The game is done downloading!" Jungkook remembered. They rushed to the computer, placing the phone leaning against it. Tae hooked up the Vive as Jungkook opened the game and set it up. 15 minutes later, it was ready to play.

      "You guys got it set up?" Jimin asked.

      "Yup! We're ready to go." Jungkook answered. Being the younger one, Tae let Jungkook go first. He strapped it on and entered the game, wandering around the room blindly. Jimin held in his laughter on the other end of the call.

      "'Get back to work!'" he read. "Piss off, robot! Leave me alone! Ooh, coffee machine!" Jungkook was turning around in 15 different directions as he played the game, reaching out to touch and grab different things. "What did I juts freaking say?! Leave me alone!" He seemed to throw the thing towards the robot, but it looks like he forgot that he was in a game as he threw the remote he held in his hand. He took the glasses of, staring at Tae and Jimin, who were both on the ground laughing. Jungkook picked the remote up, making sure it was okay and went back to playing the game. After about an hour, Tae had a turn as well.

      "Just... don't throw the remote." Jungkook warned. Tae laughed and grabbed the devices, ready to play.

      "'Yeah, I'm going, robot. No! Go away! PISS OFF!" He screamed, louder than Jungkook. After playing and laughing for hours on end, Tae and Jungkook bid their goodbyes to Jimin and had a big dinner before playing more. They lost track of time again and played for 5 hours before realizing that it was midnight and showering before snuggling into bed.

      "Tae?"

      "Yeah?"

      "What if we get obsessed?"

      "I don't know..." Tae had to think about it.

      "It'll affect us in every way."

      "Let's just not let ourselves get obsessed, then."

      "I'm just worried because we played for over 5 hours today," he confessed.

      "We'll be okay, Jungkook. Look, it's late and you're tired. Go to bed."

      "We played a lot of games today, Tae.."

      "Go to bed, Jungkook!" Tae ordered.

      "But-" 

      "Sleep." Jungkook was interrupted.

      "Fine," he obeyed, turning over and facing the wall. Tae, on the other hand, tossed and turned for half an hour until his phone suddenly lit up.

ChimChim:

remember our deal, bro

seriously

Tae:

i will

i promise

ChimChim:

promise???

(emoji could not be delivered)

Tae:

95ers dont break promises, jimin

ChimChim:

but you did lie to me

:P

Tae:

drop that, okay?

ChimChim:

DROP THAT...

GIMME DAT...

DROP THAT..

Tae:

stop!

aish...

go to bed, 

its midnight

ChimChim:

i know.

i wanted to text you

stay safe, Tae

we miss you

:P nighttttt

Tae:

good night, chim chim..

<3 

!message not delivered!

      "Damn..." Tae swore. He tried over and over to send it and it took over an hour to work, but it was worth it. "Love you, ChimChim.."


	18. This is for Our Fans!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whole of BTS meets up to do a little live stream!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey~  
> Back again with a new chapter! I hope you guys enjoy this one!! Thanks for all of the support! You guys mean so much to me. <3

It was probably 8 AM when Tae woke up from sleeping. Turning around to the clock, he was astonished at the amount of time he slept.

      "Damn..." he thought, getting up. Jungkook was still there, sleeping. He decided that he wasn't going to try to go back to sleep and got up to take a shower. Taking a surprisingly long shower, he came out to find Jungkook still asleep. 

      "Of course," he chuckled, rolling his eyes. It was 9:30 by the time he finished his regular morning routine. He was watching TV when his phone started to buzz.

**_Park Jimin_ **

**_6 missed calls_ **

**_12 messages_ **

ChimChim:

taehyung

taehuyng

taehyung

taehyung

hey

ehy

hey

ehy

ehy

pick up

picl ip

pick up

Kim Taehyung:

omg what

do you have to spam me?

kookie is still asleep

ChimChim:

kookie?

KOOKIE???

Taehyung:

it's a nickname

shut up.

ChimChim:

whatever. 

the rest of us were wondering if you wanted to do the thing

Taehyung:

wow

that sounds like so much fun

because i know exactly what you're talking about

ChimChim

*sigh*

livestreaming

VApp

Taehyung:

like i said

kookie is still sleeping

ChimChim:

fine

text me when he wakes up

and ill do the thing

Taehyung:

alright. 

ttyl hyung.

ChimChim:

okay.

He put down the phone and went back to watching his now finished show.

       "This is what happens when you call me, Jimin. I miss freaking Spongebob," he murmured. After about 10 minutes of the next show, Jungkook shifted in his sleep. Tae shut off the TV and tended to his cute boyfriend.

       "Up yet, Kookie?"

       "Mm, 5 more minutes." He rolled over and tried to sleep again, clearly still tired.

       "But I want to spend time with my Kookie! I love my Kookie so much!" Tae climbed onto Jungkook, toppling over him.

       "Ugh," Jungkook grunted as he turned to see a gigantic boyfriend on top of him. "Get. Off." He seemed pissed off as the older boy stepped off of him and Jungkook tossed over.

       "Come on, Kookie~" Tae teased.

       "Piss off, Tae. Let me sleep."

       "No." Instead of just crawling on top of him, Tae attacked and started to tickle him all over as the youner boy squirmed around, dying of laughter.

        "Are you awake yet?" Tae asked, smiling.

        "Yeah, yeah." He stepped off and Jungkook sat up. "Let me go shower and I'll spend the day with you," he grumbled.

         "Wait!"

         "What?" He stopped and turned around. Tae walked up to him with a small smile on his face.

         "I'm sorry for waking you up," he pouted as he kissed his boyfriend on the cheek.

         "No, it's fine."

         "Just go shower quickly and come back out, okay?"

         "Yeah."

         "Oh, and Jungkook? I love you." His face turned rosy red as he confessed his love to his special man.

         "Just shut up, Tae," he chuckled as he walked to the bathroom to get ready. Tae took the opportunity to text his best friend.

Taehyung:

he's up

ChimChim:

about freaking time

Taehyung:

eyyy you should know he's a heavy sleeper

ChimChim:

whatever

tell him to hurry up

Taehyung:

yeah, yeah

grab the other members

we'll start the FaceTime

Jimin didn't respond and after 5 minutes, he got a call from him and the members. As he answered it, he heard the shower turn off in the bathroom.

      "Hey, what's up, Taehyung?" J-hope immediately asked with a broad smile on his face.

      "Hey. What're you guys up to?"

      "Not much, to be honest. I mean, of course, we've been dancing and everything."

      "Yeah, of course. We've been practicing as well. You guys know how Jungkook loves the feeling of being tired as all hell."

      "He's insane," Namjoon commented.

      "What's up, Namjoon-hyung? We cool now?" Tae asked.

      "Yeah. And I'm sorry about that night, Taehyung." His head was down and he had a frown on his face as he apologized sympathetically.

      "Nah, we're cool, hyung."

      "Awesome." Before anyone else could say anything on either end, Jungkook came out of the steamy bathroom. Everyone went silent as some of the members smiled of how cute he looked. Jimin put a hand over his mouth and stepped off-camera for a moment.

       "What?" Jungkook asked clearly confused.

       "Nothing.." the members responded.

       "Uh, okay," he said as he dropped his towel and changed. It took him quite some time for him to register what was happening. "Wait, what's happening?" For the entire time that he wasn't paying attention to them, the members were silently laughing.

       "Are you guys..?

       "Video calling? Yup." Jungkook threw his towel down and left the room while the other members laughed like crazy.

       "Jungkook-ah! Come back!" Tae teased. He was in the bathroom, drying his hair. Confused and a little embarrassed, he pulled his boyfriend aside for a second and muted them on the call, telling the other members that they'll be right back.

       "Why?! Tae!" Junkgkook yelled playfully.

       "What?" Tae asked back, smiling. Not knowing what else to do, the younger boy tacked his boyfriend and kissed and ticked him all over, ordering him for an apology. 

       "Say sorry!"

       "I didn't do anything!" he said in between laughs.

       "You made a fool out of me in front of our other members! Come on! Apologize!"

       "Okay, okay! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Tae immediately said. Jungkook paused, staring him right in the face.

       "I swear if you ever do that again..." Tae cracked a smile as Jungkook fell on top of him, giving him a kiss. Luckily, the iPhone camera was facing the opposite way so the members couldn't see. They wouldn't know what to do if they saw.

       "Hey, Kookie. We should get back to the call."

       "Alright, let's go."

       "What took you guys so long?! What were you doing?" A pissed off Yoongi said with Jimin hanging onto him from behind.

       "We grabbed a sip of water quickly," Tae lied, smiling and making it more believable.

       "Get off of me Jimin!" Yoongi yelled.

       "No! Love me, senpai!"

       "Oh my fuc-GET OFF!" Yoongi grabbed Jimin by the arms and flipped him over and off him.

       "Oooohhhh," the other members commented. Jimin winced on the ground with pain.

      "God, hyung." Not even bothering to get up because of the amount of pain he was in, the other members tended to their hurt member.

      "Jimin! Are you okay?!" Tae shouted through the camera. He heard groans from the other side of the phone as the 3 other members helped him up. Yoongi was sitting there, watching from the side line with a poker face.

      "Yoongi!" Jungkook yelled, clearly angry as hell.

      "What, kid?" he shot right back with a death glare.

      "You absolute asshole! Why would you ever do something like that?!"

      "He's the one that wouldn't get off me," Yoongi defended. "And remember your place, Jungkook. Use your honorifics."

      "You don't deserve honorifics," he said through gritted teeth.

      "Excuse me?"

      "Enough!" Namjoon butted in. "One of our members is hurt right now and you guys are arguing. Yoongi-hyung, I think you should leave for now."

       "Fine with me. See ya, losers." They watched as he slammed the door behind him. Jimin sat upright now, an arm around his back.

       "Crap."

       "Jimin, are you okay?" Tae asked.

       "I don't know, Tae. I'm probably fine but damn, he's strong."

       "Shit," Hoseok cursed. He got up and left, clearly with the determination to find Yoongi.

       "Come on, let's slide back over to the call," Seokjin urged. The two helped him to slowly side back over to the phone on the ground. His eyes were shut tight, trying to deal with the pain in his back.

       "What are we gonna do, Namjoon?"

       "I don't know, but we'll find something," he assured his hyung. Tae and Jungkook simply watched, not being able to do anything. Tae got up too, going to the bathroom.

       "Tae!" Jungkook followed. He found his boyfriend crying in the bathroom. "What's wrong?" he asked, placing a hand on his back.

       "I just... Jungkook, we sat there and watched Jimin in pain."

       "We couldn't do anything..."

       "I feel so guilty.."

       "Babe, look at me." Tae looked up from the sink in the bathroom. "We are on the other side of a phone screen. They're in Seoul. We're all the way in Daegu. We can't do anything. You couldn't have done anything."

       "I know. But he's my best friend. I can't just sit and watch in pain."

       "You did all you could. You asked if he was okay."

       "I'm going to kill Yoongi when I get back."

       "Yeah, so am I, trust me. But Jimin needs you right now." Tae took a deep breath, collecting himself again.

       "Yeah. Okay, I'm sorry," he apologized.

       "Don't be. Let's go." They walked back together. Before sitting down and letting the camera see their faces, Tae gave Jungkook a quick peck on the cheek, leaving him smiling as he sat down. The moment quickly faded as they saw their friend in pain once again. Seokjin had left to get an ice pack for his back. Hoseok and Yoongi were now back. They decided that it was a bad time to do the live streaming since all the fans would be worried.

       "Let's do it a little later then. Like, a couple hours from now," Jungkook suggested.

       "Yeah, I should be fine by then," Jimin strained out. He looked at the camera, seeing Tae's face full of worry. "Taehyung, I'm fine. I promise."

       "You don't look fine..."

       "I am, okay? These guys got me." Tae calmed himself down again. "I'll be okay in a few hours. If you never trust me again, Taehyung, trust me now.

       "Alright, I trust you." The 6 members regathered and talked for a while. Yoongi continued to scroll through his phone for 2 hours until the members started to bother him and scold him.

       "Yoongi, get over here," Seokjin said.

       "Nah, don't feel like it."

       "Come on. You've been scrolling through your phone for 2 hours, hyung," Namjoon butted in.

       "And I'll continue to scroll through my phone."

       "Yoongi!" Jungkook yelled through the screen. All the members on the other side looked up, surprised. Even Yoongi.

       "What, punk?"

       "I'll tell you what. You just flipped one of our members on his back, not to mention our lead dancer. We have a live stream in a couple minutes and fans cannot know that we're having this situation. We just spend 2 hours tending to Jimin because of you and you've been scrolling through your goddamn phone. You should know better than to hurt one of our members, so you better get your lazy-ass self over to the camera so we can start," Jungkook threatened. They looked at him, wide-eyed and confused. Yoongi smirked and walked over to the phone, sitting on the opposite side of Jimin. The hurt member seemed to keep an eye on Yoongi, even as they started the live stream. 

       "Are you okay, Jimin?" Tae asked, one last time.

       "Yeah. I'm fine. Let's do this for our fans," Jimin said with determination.

       "Hands in everyone," Tae said. They put their hands up to the camera as Jimin started their chant.

       "Bangtan, Bangtan! Bang bang tan!" They set up their Vapp and recorded their screen so the viewers could see all of them. Right away, there were thousands of viewers.

       "Come in! Come in!" Seokjin said with enthusiasm.

       "Wuah! 10,000 viewers. Alright I guess we'll start." Tae said.

       "2, 3, Bang! TAN! Hello, we are BTS!" they greeted by habit.

 _why are you guys in different places?_ a comment read.

"Ne, as many of you guys know, Tae and Jungkook are out to do some promotion in Daegu. They're staying in a company paid hotel right now and we are still back here in Seoul, practicing for you guys. Don't get me wrong, though. These guys are working hard as well," Namjoon explained. The other members nodded in the background. 

       "We've been in touch recently, though. I've been calling these dorks constantly, making sure they're okay," Jimin smiled.

       "Jimin-hyung!" Jungkook laughed. They read a couple other comments and answered them. Like when Tae and Jungkook live streamed, one specifically caught their eye.

_I've been feeling really lonely lately, but you guys have been uploading almost every single day, either on VApp or Twitter. Seeing you guys happy and smiling has made me feel at home._

Namjoon read the comment carefully, making sure he read it correctly.

       "Oh, thank you!" the band members said.

       "We know there can be a lot of people out there that are lonely or just don't want to be alone, but they have no choice. We try really, really hard to make sure those people never get to the stage of isolation and posting everyday helps people like you. It makes us so happy to know that we're helping at least one person out there. It's really awesome to know that we have that kind of power," Hoseok explained.

       "You never have to be alone," Yoongi added to everyone's surprise. He hadn't spoken much the entire livestream. The only thing he would respond to were specific questions to him.

       "And even if you don't believe in yourself, know that I believe in you," Jungkook added.

       "Yeah," the other members agreed. The moment soon faded as they read off more comments and altogether just had a good time laughing and joking around. At around noon, 2 hours into the live stream, Jungkook complained that he was hungry.

       "Hyung~," he bothered Tae. The older boy gritted his teeth, not with annoyance, but of fear that he was just going to lean in and snatch a kiss from him. He took a deep breath.

       "What?" he laughed.

       "I'm hungry," Jungkook said cutely.

       "Yeah, okay. You're always hungry." He got up and grabbed his wallet along with his face mask and his wallet.

       "Where're you going?" Jungkook's eyes followed him as he opened the door.

       "To get an apparent panda some freaking food," he joked. The other members laughed, especially Hoseok, who added some clapping.

       "Oh yeah, shouldn't Seokjin be back?"

       "Where did he go?" Jungkook asked, not being able to see all of the other side.

       "He went to go cook some food." The comments immediately blew up, asking BTS if they could take their phone and show them what Seokjin was cooking. They looked at each other and shrugged, clearly not knowing what to do. Namjoon grabbed the phone, quickly going into the kitchen and distracting the fans as Jimin attempted to get up with Hoseok helping him. He quickly fell back down and decided that he was just going to stay there. Of course at this point, Jungkook couldn't see him because they brought the phone into the kitchen.

       "Whatchya cookin'?" Hoseok asked cutely.

       "Some kimbap and chicken."

       "Oh cool!" The comments exploded once again and all the fans were complimenting Seokjin on how good his food looks. 

        "Alright, I guess we'll see you later, hyung," Namjoon said. Seokjin nodded and as they sat back down, Tae came back to the hotel room carrying two boxes.

        "Woah!" Jungkook immediately got up to help him, setting the food on the table. "Where did you go?"

         "Just across the street. There's an awesome diner there."

         "And you never told me about it?" Tae laughed as they grabbed their boxes and started to eat.

         "What're we eating? I have jajangmyeon and broccoli."

         "Yeah, I have the same thing." Jungkook said. They chowed down on their food. A couple minutes later, Seokjin came back with a bowl in each hand, giving a giant bowl of food to each member. They looked about the same size and smelled fantastic. They all thanked him and started to eat. He himself sat down and ate with all his members. They ate and ate while talking to their fans and trying to connect with them. 

After about 3 more hours, they decided to do a little dancing for them, aegyo style. They danced to Baepsae, Danger, and I Need U, doing aegyo whenever they could. The fans screamed constantly from their homes and commented on how cute each member looked. Once they actually finished, all of them were sweating and drinking a gallon of water each. The fans congratulated them on another job well done. They decided to end it by answering more comments and questions on their new album and what they were doing to prepare for their concert. 

       "Sorry, guys. We gotta go. We're trying to spend more time with the rest of our band. We really hope you understand." Namjoon motioned them to stand up and they bowed.

       "Thank you~" they said constantly. The viewers didn't leave, so they took the initiative to end the live stream. As soon as VApp said it was done, Jimin flopped on his back, cringing from the pain that he forgot was there. Yoongi finally softened after 5 hours.

       "Guys, could I have a minute with Jimin?" The members nodded and left the room, but Yoongi forgot that Tae and Jungkook were still watching silently.

       "Yeah, hyung?" he said innocently.

       "Why are you still so nice to me?" Yoongi asked with sympathy written all over him.

       "I'm not one to hold grudges, even if someone flips me on my back and gives me constant pain." Yoongi smiled slightly, laying down on Jimin's stomach.

       "I'm really sorry, Jimin. I just had a rough day and you clinging onto me didn't really help. I know you were kidding and just acting cute and all, but it really annoyed me. I shouldn't have flipped you over, though."

       "No, I understand hyung. I'm sorry I didn't get off the first time you asked me to."

       "It's alright. Are you okay?"

       "Yeah, it just hurts a little bit." Jimin smiled, convincing Yoongi that he really was okay.

       "You know that I really do love you, Jimin, right?" Jimin chuckled at the sweet words.

       "Yeah, I know. I love you too, Yoongi."

       "We could've waited until later to do the live stream, though."

       "I know," Jimin said. "I feel fine, though."

       "If you were in pain, you could've waited. I saw Hoseok trying to get you up."

       "I was just having a little trouble, that's all. Thanks for worrying though, hyung."

       "We're doing it for the fans, right?" Jimin nodded, agreeing.

       "This is for our fans." Jungkook and Tae watched silently as Yoongi made sure Jimin was okay and left the room with him alone. Jimin turned to the iPhone, forgetting that it was on. "You guys saw all of that, didn't you?"

        "Yeah, kinda," Jungkook nodded. The older boy sighed.

        "Why would he apologize to me after flipping me onto my back? He could've just asked me to get off," he thought more to himself than to Jungkook and Tae.

        "Jimin, Yoongi-hyung loves you. We can tell. He's a block of ice, but he has a heart of fire. That moment that you just had with him, it's really rare. When hyung lightens up like that and shows his sympathy, you know that he cares because he's breaking down in front of you."

        "Why didn't be apologize at first, then?"

        "He was confused and angry that all of us were scolding him. He didn't know what to do, so he blamed it on you. He does care, Jimin. You need to know that. You need to trust him." Jimin sat there, silently and staring at the ground. It took a couple minutes for him to answer.

        "Okay. Yeah, I do trust him." Tae and Jungkook smiled.

        "That's good. Maybe you guys could talk it out later. We gotta go eat and practice, but maybe you could apologize to Yoongi for us? We scolded him a lot."

        "Yeah, I'll make sure to do that."

        "Thanks, hyung. And take care of yourself."

        "You guys too. Hwaiting!" They ended the call, smiling and decided that it was time for them to go practice.

        "Do you think he does it for us?" Jungkook asked.

        "Does what?"

        "Pretends to be okay?"

        "I think he does it for the fans. He really does care about them more than he cares about himself." And that's just what Jimin is: selfless.


	19. I Bet We Can Beat You!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook meet some uninvited guests at their dance practice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again!  
> Okay, so I know I didn't upload yesterday and I apologize for that. Also, the chapter is kinda short of what I usually write. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for your patience and support, guys. It means so much to me.

When the VApp call ended with Jimin finally going to eat and get some rest for his back, Jungkook and Tae decided that since this was their last day here, they should probably get some practice in.

       "I don't know, I'm kinda tired, Tae..."

       "Yeah, so am I. I know. But let's at least do like, 3 songs." Jungkook hesitantly agreed. They booked the gym for 20 minutes later. In the meantime, they changed and watched some cartoons. They got a call soon after the finale of a show saying that the gym was free. They immediately turned off the TV and rode the elevator down to the first floor.

       "Hey, babe, are you really tired?"

       "Kinda. Not really. I can use a little exercise."

       "Okay. Well, if it gets to be too much for you and you're tired, you gotta let me know. I don't want you passing out or anything," he explained. Jungkook cracked a smile and nodded. They reached the gym and there was nobody in it, as usual. They set up the phone on the floor and connected it to the speakers. They both decided that it would be good to run through the whole concert schedule again. It was halfway through their practice when it was the rapper line's turn to do Cypher Part 3-Killer. Instead of just moving on, Jungkook and Tae rapped along to the song, not missing a word. Bouncing on their feet and rapping to the top of their lungs, it makes sense that they didn't hear the door opening to the gym. As soon as they turned around, they turned to the mirror and saw five familiar figures standing near the doorway, though they all had facemasks on.

       "Who are you guys?" Tae asked them, confused. "Sorry, but we have the gym right now." Jungkook got tense, scared that they were trying to do something. He froze, studying every movement they made, every breath they took, everywhere their eyes wandered. Tae balled his hands up into fists, not of anger, but of fear. He was ready to run. Adrenaline flowed through them as they continued to just stare at each other. The tallest one in the group of people moved towards the phone, making Jungkook and Tae jump. They followed his movements over to the phone.

       "Don't touch that," Jungkook said sharply. The person looked back at him.He couldn't see any of their faces because they were wearing hoodies.

       "Why are you guys even here? I told you, we have the gym right now." The tall figure ignored Jungkook's order and continued to walk towards the phone. Jungkook's eyes narrowed as he tried to see what he was doing. He turned the loud rap music off and turned to the two members from BTS, obviously smirking. He picked up Jungkook's phone again, swiping to unlock it. He tried codes over and over again, almost ready to give up on unlocking it.

       At that moment, Jungkook jumped on his toes and sprinted over to the person. He grabbed his phone and got him in an armlock behind his back. The taller man winced.

      "Who are you guys?!" he yelled, looking around. "Why are you here?" None of them answered him, smiling. "Fine." Jungkook twisted the person's arm and flipped him onto his back, just as he'd seen people do in movies. Planting his foot onto the person's chest, he held him there. "Who's next?" The other 4 people seemed scared as they looked at their friend on the floor. They smiled, confusing the two boys. Slipping their face masks off, Jungkook stared, horrified. These 5 people weren't 5 random people. These 5 people were Bigbang. He immediately got off of the tall person, who happened to be T.O.P, and apologized. Tae also apologized, looking at them wide-eyed.

      "Holy shit, I'm sorry," he said, bowing over and over again.

      "It's okay, Jungkook." GD got him in a manly hug as he patted his back. "It's our fault for trying to prank you."

       "That's one hell of a prank, guys."

       "And that's one hell of a grip." T.O.P said, smiling.

       "I'm sorry, sunbaenim. I didn't mean to."

       "I know you didn't mean to. I understand." They stood in awkward silence, staring each other down."What're you guys doing?" GD spoke up first.

       "We decided to do a runthough of our concert since it's coming up just a few days after we return to Seoul."

       "Oh, cool!" Daesung said.

       "Do you mind if we join?" Seungri asked. Caught off guard, Jungkook and Tae slowly nodded their heads.

       "We were about to practice Purpose."

       "Ah, I love that song," GD commented. "You guys just finished a live streaming, right?"

       "Yeah, how'd you know?" Tae smiled.

       "Well, guess who was watching?" He raised his arm, gesturing to the other 5 members. Jungkook's eyes went wide.

       "You guys watch out live streams?"

       "Every single one," Taeyang said. Jungkook smiled wide and went up to hug GD.

       "Is everything okay?" GD whispered.

       "Yeah, why?" Jungkook got worried.

       "Jimin wasn't acting like usual," he noticed.

       "Yeah, some shit went down," he explained briefly.

       "Wanna talk about it after?"

       "Yeah. Tae can join too. Thanks, hyung." They let each other go as Tae started the music again. The danced for about another hour before the entire "show" was over. They ended up doing more than expected, doing a run through of the show and a dance off between the 7 of them. They all danced to BTS songs. Jungkook did We Are Bulletproof pt 2, Tae did I Like It, T.O.P, being lazy, did Miss Right, GD did I Need U, Seungri did Fun Boys, and Daesung did Attack on Bangtan. What surprised the two boys was that each member of BIGBANG didn't miss one word of the songs and the members who were watching didn't miss one fanchant. Jungkook and Tae watched in amazement as they contemplated who danced better to their own songs, BTS or BIGBANG. At the end of it all, everyone thought that Jungkook killed it with We Are Bulletproof pt 2, so he won. 4 members of BIGBANG sat down with each other as GD sat down with Tae and Jungkook, as promised.

       "So.. what's wrong?" The two boys looked each other in the eye, taking a deep breath. Tae was the first to turn to GD, starting to explain what happened.

      "You know you can't tell anyone, right?"

      "Yeah, I understand."

      "Okay, well, here goes. Before the live stream that you guys watched, Jimin was hanging onto Yoongi-hyung from behind." GD nodded his head, clearly listening. "He told Jimin to get off of him and when he didn't, Yoongi got pissed off and flipped Jimin off him."

       "What do you mean he flipped him off of him?"

       "He literally grabbed Jimin's hand and flipped him onto his back in front of him." GD looked shocked, clearly not knowing what to do.

       "Are you guys worried about him?" Jungkook and Tae nodded.

       "Well, he's a tough guy. And I would know. Jimin taught you that move, didn't he, Jungkook?" The youngest boy looked up, wide-eyed.

       "How'd you know?"

       "He's strong and caring. Why did he teach you that?"

       "In case I was ever in danger, I could always use that move..." he said quietly.

       "See? If he's eager enough to teach YOU how to defend yourself, clearly he knows how to recover."

       "Hyung, he's one of our lead dancers along with Hoseok-hyung. What if it doesn't get better by our concert? It's only a few days away."

       "He knows how to take care of injuries, Taehyung." GD said. "He knows how to take care of himself, I promise. If he didn't, why would he teach you those moves?" It helped Jungkook and Tae feel a little more comfortable and less worried about their hyung. "Okay?" They both nodded and went to join the rest of BIGBANG, who were sweaty as hell.

       "Damn, guys," Taeyang said, still panting. "Your choreo is seriously hard..." The two boys laughed.

       "You get used to it after a while."

       "Well, most of us do." They snickered, knowing that they were talking about Yoongi. After hours and hours of talking and joking, Jungkook and Tae were so grateful that they had the chance to meet BIGBANG and be able to talk to them normally and as friends. They decided it was really late and wanted to go to bed. They left on great terms, everyone hugging each other and saying their sweetest goodbyes.

       It was halfway up the elevator ride when Tae realized something. His breath suddenly stopped.

       "What? What is it?" Tae showed Jungkook his watch.

       "It's been two weeks..." he said softly. Jungkook's eyes softened as he glared at Tae. His eyes were filling with tears. "Jungkook..." The elevator dinged, notifying them that they were on their level. They were silent as they took the two minute walk back to their hotel room. Tae went straight to the bathroom. Junkook tried to stop him, running after him and rattling the door handle multiple times though he locked it.

       "Tae!" he half yelled, half whispered, desperate for him to come out. "Tae! Come on, we can talk about this!" 3 minutes passed and he heard nothing. His back slammed against the door as he slid down and sat on the ground. "Tae, I don't want you to hurt yourself... not again." Tears welled up in his own eyes and Jungkook ran through the possibilities in his head of what his boyfriend could possibly be doing in there. He realized that right now, Tae didn't need a boyfriend. He needed a friend. He knew exactly what would cheer him up. Jungkook immediately jumped on his feet and grabbed his phone. Scrolling through his recent contacts, Jimin wasn't very far down the list. He pressed the green call button, waiting for his hyung to pick up.

       "Hello?" a familiar voice asked.

       "Hyung?" a panicked voice said back.

       "Jungkook? What's wrong?" Jimin's voice turned to worried. Jungkook walked across the room and talked softly.

       "Okay, long story short," he talked fast. "Tae doesn't wanna go home tomorrow, so when he came back to the hotel room after a dance practice, he ran into the bathroom and locked the door. I don't know what he's doing in there and that's what scares me. I don't want him to hurt himself again. I don't want to see him in pain again." He could hear his hyung sitting up on the bed, groaning as he did so because of his back. He was clearly thinking of an important plan.

       "Give Tae the phone," he ordered suddenly.

       "He locked himself in the bathroom."

       "Slide it through the crack at the bottom." Because Jungkook had the most recent iPhone, it just fit and he obeyed right away. Jimin, on the other end, gathered himself to speak to Tae. 

       "Taehyung?" he said after about 45 seconds. His voice also softened as he started talking to his friend, although he got no reply. "Hey, where are you?" Still no reply. Tae heard a long, loud sigh on the other end. "I know, TaeTae. I know you don't want to come home. I know you want to stay there forever, where all of your great memories are, where your family is. That's how I felt when I went to Busan. I didn't want to leave my parents and my brother because I love them too. But, Taehyung, we need you here. We need you to be the best BTS member you can, right now. The team has suffered a lot when you were gone. We're not BTS without you and Jungkook. We can't do this without you, Tae. I can't do this without you..." Jimin waited a moment, as he heard some sniffling on the other end. "Taehyung, please," he begged. Tae sat straight up, palms pressed against his eyes.

       "Hyung..." It sounded as if they were reshooting the Prologue scene all over again. "Jimin... I love you guys and I miss you guys, but I don't want to leave here..."

       "I know, trust me. I do. But you gotta come back. we need you, Taehyung. Without you, the concert can't go on. Imagine the fans disappointment when they find out that you won't be performing. It'll break their hearts." He started to guilt trip the younger boy.

       "Jimin, I went to go see my family the other day. I saw my little sister and my little brother and my dad and my mom and all of the rest of my family and we celebrated and... I can't go back."

       "You have to..." At this point, Jimin was scared that Tae would just end up staying there forever. BTS needed him. "I know how it feels to leave family, trust me, I do. But please... we need you here. You're the member in BTS that I'm closest with. Please, Taehyung. You were the one that pushed me through hours and hours of dance practice, hours and hours of vocal practice. You were the one that inspired me to get up at 4 AM and go practice dance. Most importantly, you were the one that told me to be myself onstage and you were the one that was always there for me when I messed up or lost confidence or lost self-esteem. You were always the one to immediately ask what's wrong and talk about it with me. Taehyung, I can't do this without you. I can't keep training and be better without you.." Jimin tried his best to hold his tears back, but failed horribly.

       "Look at me, Tae," he laughed. "I'm a mess without you." Tae lifted his head, staring at the door. 

       "Jimin..."

       "Yeah?" He sniffled.

       "You know that I really do love you, right? You're also my closest friend. I'm sorry about that. I didn't know what I was thinking." Tae could hear as Jimin smiled and laughed.

       "It's okay, Tae. Just... get back here safely, please."

       "I promise I will." They said their goodbyes as Tae hung up the phone and opened the bathroom door to find a crying Jungkook sitting on the floor, leaning against the door. Tae wrapped his arms around him.

       "I'm okay, Kookie. I promise," he whispered. Jungkook looked up as he stood, hugging Tae.

       "Tae..." he whispered back. "I thought you were hurting yourself again."

       "No. I promised you I wouldn't. I don't break a promise to you, Kookie." Jungkook cracked a smile. They hugged each other for the longest time.

       "How about we can visit your parents one last time before we leave, okay?" he compromised. Tae nodded his head slowly. 

       "I would enjoy that," he said as he pulled away and planted a soft kiss on Jungkook's lips, pulling him closer by his waist.  After a short while, Jungkook pulled away. Tae pouted at the loss.

       "We have to start packing, Tae," he smirked.

       "You're not getting away with this, Jeon Jungkook," Tae said evilly, but obeyed Jungkook's order and they started to pack their things, leaving a pair of comfortable clothes to sleep in that they were honestly just going to travel in. They each took a long shower and decided to sleep together tonight. It was special for the both of them since it was their last night. Jungkook was first to climb into bed and Tae joined after brushing his teeth and drying his hair. They got closer to each other, cuddling against the warmth of the other's body. Jungkook curled up like a dog as Tae protectively settled in to the right of him.

        "Hey, Kookie?"

        "Yeah?" Jungkook responded, clearly tired.

        "This trip turned into a lot more, you know?" Tae remembered.

        "What do you mean?"

        "Well we came as friends. And look at us now." He gestured to the cuddling position they were in. Jungkook laughed. "We're kissing and cuddling and everything and to be perfectly honest with you.. it feels amazing. I love it. And I love you." Jungkook's eyes softened at his words as he kissed Tae, arms around his waist this time.

        "I had a lot of fun with you too, Tae. I really did love this vacation. It's been a love filled, quiet, nice time with you. I honestly can't wait to o on our next one." Tae grinned widely and kissed Jungkook on the cheek. " Oh yeah. And I love you too."

        "Alright, alright," Tae stopped. "I think we should go to bed now. We have a long day tomorrow." Jungkook nodded, getting back into his position before they talked, finding it quite comfortable. He fell asleep first with Tae stroking his hair and kissing him every now and then before he fell asleep himself, hugging onto Jungkook tightly.


	20. We've Got Something to Tell You..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tae and Jungkook go back to Seoul!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... I forgot to update again.  
> Hey guys! I'm back again (late) with a new chapter. This is sadly the last chapter of this story. I'm honestly kinda sad that this is over and it's been quite a long time with you guys since I've published my first chapter of this story. I've grown a lot as a writer and I can only thank you guys for it. Your unending support has driven me to (hopefully) write many more stories to come, but it looks like it's the end of this one. Before you go, I have a question. The next story I write.. Would you guys like another BTS fanfic (Yoonmin) or a GOT7 family kind of story? It would be awesome if you could leave a comment on which one you'd like better.  
> For one last time, thank you all so, SO much for reading. You all have been the light of my life and thank you for being the best readers I could ever ask for. You're all awesome and I'll see you all soon. Bye.. :)

Tae set an alarm for 6 AM the next morning, only half prepared to go home. Since Jungkook didn't wake up from the alarm, Tae ended up taking a shower and getting ready before waking up his younger friend. It was 6:30 when he was just watching TV and as usual, he got a phone call from Jimin.

       "Hello?" a voice on the other end asked.

       "Hey," Tae said softly. Jimin could tell that Tae wasn't ready to go home.

       "Tae.." he tried to comfort him.

       "Okay, I'm going to be honest. I'm really salty right now and I know you're just trying to help, but you're just really not." Jimin went silent. The younger boy took a deep breath. "Look, I understand that you need me back there, which is why I'm coming back, but you know how much of a connection I have with my family and friends," he explained.

       "Taehyung, I know. But BTS isn't BTS without you. We are the bulletproof boys because the 7 of us are unbeatable. It's not bulletproof without you." Tae seemed to be thinking about this quite hard. He sighed loudly.

       "I know, Jimin." There seemed to be a tense silence after that. 

       "Just come home soon, okay?" Tae nodded, apparently unaware that Jimin couldn't see him. "We miss you. I gotta go, Hobie is doing a live stream right now. Bye," he left on a sad note. Tae held the phone in front of him as it lit up, looking at the two of them together in their profile picture. Sighing, he looked over to the side to see Jungkook sitting up in his bed, hugging onto the sheets cutely.

       "Tae..." he whispered. A tear ran down his cheek.

       "I'm going to say exactly what I said to Jimin: I know you're just trying to help, but you're really just doing the opposite," he said quite coldly. Jungkook stayed silent. "You know how much I don't want to leave, Kookie." He choked back a sob.

       "Of course I know and I understand, but I can't do anything about it. You signed up to be an idol, Tae. You have fans that absolutely love you and you have us too. The company let you go on this trip. Isn't that enough?" he tried to say nicely and sympathetically. Tae's expression turned stone hard.

       "Family comes first," he said without thinking. Jungkook's head immediately fell.

       "Really? Does that mean we're nothing to you?" he started softly. "Does that mean that you could just go forever without BTS? Does that mean that you can just fucking leave us?!" he yelled.

       "I can do whatever the hell I want, Jungkook! I can leave if I want, I can stay if I want. I have the fucking right. Stop trying to guilt trip me because it sure as hell isn't working," Tae snapped back.

       "You wanna stay then, you asshole?!"

       "Yeah! I'd love to stay!"

       "Fine! Fuck you, I'm out." Jungkook grabbed his already packed luggage and stormed out of the room. In the room, Tae fell down, sobbing as soon as the door closed. He immediately went into the bathroom, grabbing his shaver. Slamming it hard, he broke the plastic as the razor fell out and Tae stepped back. Without hesitation, he grabbed it, staring. _Nice to see you, old friend_ , he thought. He placed the razor above his wrist and closed his eyes..

Meanwhile...

       Jungkook rode the elevator down to the lobby level, not taking back anything he said.

       "He deserves it," he thought aloud. "Absolute asshole." So engulfed in his thoughts, he didn't realize it when a tear streamed down his face. He walked down to the car before texting Jimin.

Jungkook:

taehyung's being a jerk

Jimin-hyung:

wut happened

???

Jungkook:

he told me that we're not family

basically

got pissed off

Jimin-hyung:

where are you?

Jungkook: 

car

Jimin-hyung

where's taehyung?

Jungkook:

hotel room

y?

Jimin-hyung:

shit

gtg

       Jungkook turned off his phone, practically throwing it onto the seat next to him, which was the passenger seat. His head tilted back as he bit his lip, trying to hold back a flood of emotions and the urge to cry for eternity.

       Jimin knew exactly what was up. He quit the message app on his iPhone and immediately called Tae.

        _He placed the razor above his wrist and closed his eyes.._ and then he heard the phone ring. He looked over, confused at who could possibly be calling at a time like that. Slightly angry, he looked at the caller ID. Seeing that it was Jimin, his anger turned soft as he answered the call.

       "Hello?" he asked softly.

       "Taehyung?!" Jimin half yelled back, clearly panicked.

       "Hey.."

       "Where are you?" he asked hurriedly.

       "Hotel room bathroom."

       "Why?" Tae thought hard about his actions and started to sob again. "Taehyung? Are you okay?"

       "No, hyung. I'm not okay, actually. I hurt Jungkook. I hurt you. I hurt BTS."

       "Did you hurt yourself?" Jimin asked, almost in a whisper.

       "Not yet." His hyung was relieved, yet hurt because he said "yet".

       "Taehyung, you have to promise me that you won't."

       "Jimin, you don't understand."

       "No. I don't," he agreed. "But do you know what I do understand? I understand that I love you. I understand that I need you. I understand that you are my motivation and my inspiration. And you need to understand that you are worth more than this. You are worth absolutely everything. Trust me on this, Taehyung. Please..." He thought about it for a while, wondering what exactly to do while warm tears ran down his face. After 5 minutes of Jimin telling him not to do it and making sure he was okay, he threw the razor down and sobbed.

       "Jimin, I can't do this anymore.."

       "Yes you can. I know you can."

       "No you don't! I can't. I can't. I can't," he mumbled.

       "We're 95'ers. Both of us. You are just as strong as I am and you know what? You're stronger than I am. You were always there for me and I was never there for you. That makes you 100 times stronger than me."

       "I don't want to do this anymore, Jimin. I can't.." Jimin sighed on the other end, not knowing how to comfort his friend. He decided to go get Namjoon and tell him everything that was happening. He took the phone from Jimin.

       "Taehyung?" a deep voice said. Tae's head lifted.

       "Namjoon-hyung?"

       "You gotta get yourself out of this, Taehyung. You can't be an idol and be depressed. You're gonna kill yourself one day," he said, stumbling on his own words.

       "Hyung, you know how much I love everyone in Daegu. My family, my friends, they're all here."

       "I know, but you have to come back. We need you here right now."

       "That's what Jimin keeps saying. But I'm not that strong."

       "Kim Taehyung, did you know that we are all humans? That means that we can all experience the same type of feeling. Jimin has the strength to go to you and tell his feelings but he also has the strength to talk to Hobi-hyung about what Hobi-hyung is feeling. This means that you have the exact same capability to do that. You can do exactly what Jimin can do if you just try and if you believe in yourself. I can believe in you all I want, and trust me, I do. But nothing will change if you don't believe in yourself. Telling yourself that you can't come home or you can't do it, it'll get you absolutely nowhere. You won't go a single step from where you are right now. Believe in yourself. Be good to yourself. Because in the end, we can be here for all you want, but soon you'll be alone. Soon, you might have no one. In that moment, you're all you got, Taehyung," Brain Mon explained. The younger boy thought about his words for a while.

       "Okay.. Yeah, I got it."

       "Do you?"

       "Yeah."

       "Good. Go throw that razor away carefully - don't cut yourself -  and go call Jungkook and talk to him." Tae nodded. 

       "Okay. I'm sorry, hyung..." he said, regretting all the trouble that Namjoon and Jimin went through.

        "It's okay, Taehyung. Just come home quickly."

        "Alright. I love you, Namjoon-hyung." The older boy chucked.

        "I love you too. Oh, and Taehyung? I want to see those cuts when you get back." Tae hung up the phone and turned a bright red, embarrassed to show what he had done to himself. He calmed himself down before walking out to the bedroom to call Jungkook. When the phone was ringing, he could hear it in the same room, when he turned around, he saw Jungkook standing by the door.

        "Hey..." he whispered. Tae stood up and ran to him, embracing him in a hug before burying his face into the crook of Jungkook's neck.

        "I'm sorry, Jungkook," he half sobbed. Jungkook wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.

        "It's okay. I know what you meant."

        "But I hurt you."

        "And I forgive you." They pulled apart from the hug and kissed each other passionately, enjoying it before they had to get in the car and leave. "Are you sure you're okay, Tae?"

        "Yeah. I promise, I'm fine," he gave a quick smile. Tae grabbed his things and the two boys gave one last, sad look around the hotel room before leaving it forever. They both knew that it would be one of the last alone times that they would have for a long, long time. They checked out and got the car, ready to go home.

       "I'm sorry, hyung."

       "Why are you sorry? You didn't do anything wrong," Tae said quietly.

       "I said that I'd leave without you."

       "But you didn't. You came back. You rescued me." He smiled. They hugged each other before getting into the car and starting their way home. As usual, Jungkook slept again, tired from the fight that happened earlier. As they said they would do, Tae drove by his parents house to say goodbye. Leaving Jungkook to sleep in the car, he went to the house and knocked on the door for the last time. When his mother opened it, a tear ran down his cheek for the 5th time today.

       "Taehyung-ssi? What's wrong?" His mother put a hand on his back while ushering him into the house. Tae didn't answer and immediately hugged her.

       "Today's my last day here," he mumbled. His mother's expression turned soft. "I have to go back and practice for the concert this Friday..." He was fully sobbing now, his voice turning higher pitched as he tried to speak. "I'm not going to see you for a really long time, mom..."

       "I know, Taehyung," she started crying too. "I'm going to miss you too. But if there's one thing you can possibly do for me, stay strong. Through all the practicing and training and composing, stay strong, please. If you won't do it for Jungkook-ssi, do it for me." Tae nodded his head on his mom's shoulder. At that warming moment, his younger siblings came running down the stairs.

       "Taehyung!!!" they both yelled. He smiled sadly, embracing them into a tight hug.

       "Hey guys.." His younger brother ran off quickly, asking where Jungkook was. He tried to explain to his sister what was happening. "Oppa's gotta go now, okay?" 

       "Where're you going?" she asked sadly. She wasn't old enough to understand where he was going or what he was doing, but she was old enough to understand that she wouldn't see her brother like this for a long, long time.

       "Oppa has to go practice for a new concert. Isn't that exciting?" He smiled as he sniffled. "I promise I'll see you soon, okay?" He held up his pinky, waiting for his little sister to hook her own pinky into his. She kept her head down, tears clearly falling from her eyes.

       "Oppa, I don't know where you're going, but I know you're lying," she sobbed. His eyes turned soft as he hugged her. "I'm not going to see you for a long time, am I?" She understood. He nodded, patting her back.

       "Sweetie, I don't care what it takes. I'm coming back here whether the company likes it or not. I will come see you, that I can promise."

       "Pinky promise?" her cute voice pitched. He smiled and hooked his finger around hers.

       "Pinky promise." His little brother came running back, holding a piece of paper and hugging his hyung.

       "Where's Jungkook-ssi?" he asked, excited. Tae chuckled.

       "Jungkook is tired, so he's sleeping in the car." His expression fell.

       "Can you give this to him?" He handed Tae a piece of paper. Tae took his hand instead. 

       "Come follow me," he said. They went out to the car, Jungkook still sleeping in it. Tae opened the passenger seat door and woke Jungkook up. The first thing the younger boy saw was Tae's little brother. He smiled immediately and sat up.

       "Hey, little buddy! What's up?" He laughed.

       "I wanted to give this to you..." he handed the piece of paper to Jungkook. He opened it and read it aloud.

       "'Dear Jungkook-ssi, I hope you guys do really good in the concert. Good luck with all the practicing and mom says not to forget that you are your first pryority.'" Jungkook laughed at the spelling mistake. '"We love you back here and don't forget to give love to BTS. Jungkook, fighting! Taehyung, fighting! <3"' There was a little drawing of all the BTS members in stick form at the bottom and Jungkook hugged the little boy. "Thank you.. I'll look to this for strength. I love you guys too." They held the hug for a long time before he ran back into the house. Tae explained the same thing to him as he did to his sister and he made the same promise too.

       "Where's dad?" he asked, walking into the kitchen where his mom was sitting at the table.

       "He's still asleep. He worked late last night." Tae took a piece of paper and wrote a long note to his father, trying not to wake him up so he could rest.

       Dear Dad,

              It's Taehyung, your oldest son. I just dropped by the house to say goodbye. I just wanted you to know a couple of things. I'm not going to be seeing you for an extremely long time unless you come to my concert for Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa next year, which I would love. There is no age limit, so you can bring my little brother and little sister as well. Also, thank you for everything you've done. You've been supportive and loving and caring and you put up with mom's scolding. In an interview, I always said that I want to be just like you, and I do. You're the best father anyone could ever wish for and you deserve the best. I hope you're proud of me and who I've become and what I've done for the world. I promise I'll work harder so I don't disappoint you. You've been my rock these past few years and I'm sure you'll be my rock forever. Please don't overwork yourself and become ill. Dad, I don't know what I'd do without you. I'm sorry that I couldn't see you face to face and say goodbye, but I'll call as soon as I get back to Seoul. I love you infinitely.

Love,

Taehyung-ssi

       He folded up the note and put it next to his dad's bed on a night stand. Leaning over, he hugged him softly before leaving the house, bidding one last goodbye to everyone there. Jungkook was patiently waiting in the car. As Tae got in and closed the door, Jungkook smiled.

       "Do you have closure now?" he asked nicely.

       "Yeah," Tae nodded. He started the car and off to Seoul they went.

**Fastforward 2 hours**

        By the time they got back to the dorm, it was 3 pm, which wasn't that bad. Nobody was there, though. They set their stuff in their room, promising themselves they'd clean it up later, but let's face it, they aren't going to.

       "Where are they?"

       "I think they might be at dance practice." Just as soon as they got in the door of their dorm, it seemed like they were back outside, in new clothes and facemasks. It wasn't freezing as it usually was, so the 20 minute walk down to the studio wasn't that bad. They found Yoongi standing outside.

       "Why're you out here?" Tae asked. Yoongi simply shrugged. Then, something hit Jungkook. He realized that Yoongi had hurt Jimin. Jungkook rushed towards the older boy, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pushing him against the brick wall hard.

       "Woah! Calm down, Jungkook!" Tae screamed.

       "You flipped him over," Jungkook said threateningly. "You better have been looking after him these past few days or I swear, you will regret it." All Yoongi did was smirk and chuckle, confusing the two boys. And pissing Jungkook off a little.

       "Relax, Jungkook. He's being taken care of, I promise. Yes, I've been helping. Yes, I've been making sure he's okay and I am sorry, okay? I know it pissed you off and I don't expect you to forgive me, but he's okay. I swear." Jungkook looked at him weirdly before letting go, the three of them walking into the building. They took the elevator up to the floor where the studio was and walked right in. They were in the middle of a dance practice for Run when they barged in and interrupted. The music immediately stopped as the members went over to greet them.

       "Ayeeee!" The members cheered.

       "You're finally back," Jimin hugged Tae. Jungkook hugged Jimin as well as the other 4 members waiting. Jungkook, Seokjin, Namjoon, Yoongi, and Hoseok sat down as Jimin and Tae went into a separate room to talk.

       "Lift up your sleeves," Jimin ordered as soon as he closed the door behind him.

       "Why?"

       "I wanna see," he mumbled. Tae flushed with embarrassment and did as he was told, lifting up his sweatshirt sleeve. The cuts he placed there before were healing much better now. They were completely scabbed and almost completely faded away. Jimin sighed in relief. He went up to hug Tae again.

       "Don't you dare ever do this to yourself again, okay?" Tae nodded his head and put his arms around Jimin. He rolled his sleeves down and the two boys went outside, Jimin sitting next to Yoongi and Tae sitting next to Jungkook. The members were complaining about how they got to skip dance practice and vocal practice and going to the gym and all of that, but the two boys weren't really listening. They were reading each other's minds with expressions.

       "Um, hello?" Hoseok waved an arm in front of their faces and laughed. "Is there something the rest of us are missing?" Jungkook and Tae nodded at each other.

       "There's actually something we need to tell you guys," Jungkook said. The members froze, confused.

       "You know you can tell us anything, guys," Seokjin said, acting like a mother. Tae took in a deep breath and started to spill.

       "First of all, we weren't on a business trip. We were on a vacation," he waited for a reaction. Some of the members shook their head, looking angry. His eyes told them that he was sorry.

       "It's okay, Taehyung," Namjoon said. "We know how much you miss your family." Tae nodded.

       "Second of all, Jungkook and I found something out."

       "And what would that be?" Seokjin asked.

       "We...." he didn't know how to say it subtly, so he just blurted it out. "We really like each other." Jungkook's hand slipped into Tae's for strength and as a visual. The members looked shocked. Their expression soon changed, from shocked to extremely happy.

       "Wait so you're actually dating??" Hoseok asked.

       "When did this happen?" Seokjin butted in.

       "I shipped you guys all along," Namjoon laughed. Tae and Jungkook smiled, glad that their members were okay with them dating.

       "I love you guys to death, but please just don't kiss in front of us.." Jimin said awkwardly, grinning like the others. Tae and Jungkook laughed.

       "Alright, alright. Thanks for understanding, guys. This was one of the reasons both of us were scared to come back. We were scared that you guys were going to reject us."

       "Taehyung, we've spend more than two years together. Can't reject you now, now can we?" Hoseok joked. They got up and hugged each other again.

       "Everything turned out perfectly, Tae. I told you they wouldn't mind..."

       "Yeah, you did.." They hugged each other as well.

       "I love you, Tae. Never forget that."

       "I love you too. And you better not forget either."


End file.
